BLE set for surge
According to ABI Research, manufacturers will ship more than 2.5 billion Bluetooth low-energy chip sets in 2014 in a market that will grow at 78% compound-annual-growth rate between 2009 and 2014.
By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News -- EDN, November 12, 2009
ABI Research expects manufacturers to ship some 2.5 billion BLE (Bluetooth low energy) chip sets in 2014, with most of those units being dual-mode ICs. The company reports that, by and large, separate groups of vendors, each dependent on the investment and commitment of the other, will produce dual- and single-mode ICs. Next year, single-mode ICs will account for less than 3% of BLE-chip-set shipments, according to the market-research company’s data.
ABI Research estimates that manufacturers will ship more than 2.5 billion BLE chip sets in 2014 in a market that will grow at a 78% compound annual growth rate between 2009 and 2014. The company expects that less than one-third of those shipments will be for single-mode ICs. “BLE will enter the market in two stages—first with support for BLE embedded in mobile handsets and then with a second stage when BLE devices come to market,” says Jonathan Collins, principal analyst at ABI Research.
Although low-power, short-range applications, such as sports and fitness equipment, will be the first devices to market, there is further potential for BLE health-monitoring applications.
