NEW YORK, N.Y. /New York Netwire/ — According to a new study by Thintri, Inc., an array of short range wireless (SRW) technologies is about to remake a range of markets with inexpensive, easy to use products available to nearly every consumer or business. The report, “Market Opportunities in Short Range Wireless,” explores short range wireless technologies and the markets they address. A number of these technologies have already created billion dollar markets, while others are just beginning, but most are poised for dramatic growth in the next few years.
“Short range,” in this case, refers to technologies that are largely (but not exclusively) limited to a radius of about 10m, or 30 feet, roughly the size of a house or small building.
Platforms like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are already well established, with annual device shipments in the billions of units. Their markets are expanding as new applications continually surface. The more recent development of protocols like ANT, 6LoWPAN, Z-Wave and others, along with plunging hardware prices, has set up conditions for a rapid expansion of many new commercial and consumer markets. The proliferation of platforms has meant that some markets are served by several protocols, initiating fierce competition among them. The result will be explosive market growth in applications that in many cases barely exist today.
Some of those technologies will revolutionize the conduct of commerce. For example, near field communications (NFC) is enabling mobile or “smart” wallets that allow a smartphone to perform the normal actions of credit cards and eliminate the use of cash. Beacons will offer retailers and manufacturers unprecedented and precise awareness of their customers’ behavior.
The “smart home” is an arena where a broad array of commercial products is already available for HVAC and security, but which is also poised for dramatic growth in new applications. Platforms like Insteon, Bluetooth/BLE, ZigBee, Z-Wave and others will enable smart lighting systems, garage doors that automatically open on the approach of the user’s phone, outdoor motion sensors that can distinguish between pets and humans, and systems that can feed pets on schedule, among many others. Some new products will enhance the safety of elderly people and others living alone.
Similarly, SRW technology is remaking healthcare and medical services. In hospitals, wireless sensors can eliminate the tangle of cables that prevents patient mobility while also providing immediate warning of critical events such as cardiac arrest. In the operating room during surgery, elimination of wires can significantly improve patient safety and efficiency of medical staff.
The real revolution in medical care brought about by SRW technology, however, will be the unprecedented increase in mobility and effectiveness brought about by small, inexpensive wireless sensors in medical body area networks (MBANs) that will allow many patients to stay home while providing continuous, 24 hour monitoring of a broad range of physiological parameters.
The platforms are available and markets waiting. In some cases the only barrier to market growth is that the hardware needs to be less costly; in others, there simply needs to be greater customer awareness.
Short range wireless technologies offer extraordinary opportunities. Depending on the market, growth is already well underway, is starting now, or will start soon.
From platforms and applications that are already well-established in billion-dollar markets, to new protocols and markets that are only now emerging, potential market volumes are enormous and in many cases growing rapidly. And yet, there are legacy technologies that will decline in this period as they become constrained by older standards that are less adaptable in the new marketplace.
The Thintri market study, “Market Opportunities in Short Range Wireless,” makes use of extensive, in-depth interviews with industry executives, market development managers and government and academic researchers. The report highlights the available and emerging short range wireless technologies and analyzes their market growth, with forecasts to 2023.
For more information on the report, visit: http://www.thintri.com/Short-range-wireless-report.htm.
About Thintri, Inc.:
Founded in 1996, Thintri, Inc. (www.thintri.com), is a full-service consulting firm, based in New York and directed by J. Scott Moore, Ph.D.
Thintri’s services include business intelligence, market research, technology transfer and technology assessment, and in-depth, off-the-shelf market studies on promising emerging technologies. Topics of focus have included communications, aerospace, medical and industrial imaging, materials and coatings, semiconductor devices, photonics, plastic electronics, manufacturing, industrial logistics, security and defense, thermal management, energy, and a host of others.
For more information, visit http://www.thintri.com or call 914-242-4615.
