With wireless connectivity spreading like weeds from handsets to laptops to machine-to-machine (M2M) and an increasing variety of consumer electronics, the companies that make the chips to support the connectivity are enjoying a boost to their bottom line.
Just look at Texas Instruments (TI), which is strengthening its grip on the embedded device space with its OMAP processor. The company saw first-quarter sales in its wireless division rise 27 percent in the first quarter to $717 million.
Then there’s Intel, which said its mobile microprocessor revenue hit record levels last quarter. Finally, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said during the company’s second-quarter results that new and emerging categories of wireless devices are “gaining traction” even as dongles and embedded laptops continue to drive the majority of non-handset chip sales.
“Over the years, we’ve really expanded into areas of embedded applications like gaming, medical, retail, and we’ve seen quite a bit of activity on digital signage and in-vehicle entertainment,” says Sandra Rivera, Intel’s director for its embedded and communications group. “Everything is going to be connected in some shape or form.”
Her statement is echoed by Matt Kurtz, platforms and ecosystem manager for emerging connectivity solutions at Texas Instruments. “There are more people out there evangelizing the sea of connected things and there’s real development going on in all these areas,” he says. “How fast they get to you and me is a matter of pull/push. The companies want to get these things out to consumers and then the market will decide.”
Demand for connectivity is expected to increase across the board, but Kurtz believes that consumer adoption will be the ultimate decider of whether M2M can pass from the enterprise space into mainstream electronics.
“I’m convinced we can almost never make this stuff easy enough for the average user… The more we invest in making these things easy and not scary to a non-technical person, the better,” he says. “I think that’s the biggest single thing for the industry.”
Intel connected device director Kevin Johnson says cheerleading from wireless operators is helping raise the profile of the segment’s potential. “We’re at the front end of the growth curve on this and now you have major telecom service providers picking up this banner,” he says. “They’re pushing the boundaries of the imagination, talking to innovators, enabling connectivity.”
Wireless operators won’t be the only ones to benefit from increased adoption of connected devices; that connectivity can come from a multitude of different standards, from low-power ZigBee to long-distance 3G. However, connectivity is proving to be a rising tide, and it’s taking all the boats in the ecosystem with it.
