Wi-Fi HDTVs, Blu-ray players & game consoles to top 600 million

According to market research company In-Stat, the number of CE video devices with out-of-the-box Wi-Fi connectivity will balloon to 600 million by 2015. The figure includes game machines like the PS3 and Nintendo 3DS, set-top boxes and Smart TVs, said the group.

The future success of the Wi-Fi model will be buoyed by new Wi-Fi Display and Wi-Fi Direct technology, said Frank Dickson, vice president of research for In-Stat. The latter allows Wi-Fi devices to connect to each other sans a dedicated access point.

“Wi-Fi has moved from a nice-to-have feature to a must-have feature as it provides the connectivity necessary to support IP-based video content,” Dickson said. “It is important to note though that Wi-Fi is growing from being simply about getting content from a network to devices, to sharing content between devices, as Wi-Fi evolves from being a network-centric connectivity standard to one that enables peer-to-peer connectivity.”

Wi-Fi-enabled Blu-ray players will fuel much of that growth, said In-Stat, with more than 28 million expected to ship in 2013 alone. The analysis firm added that the Wi-Fi-to-Digital TV attach ratio will hit 40 percent in three years.

How many home videos devices do you own that support Wi-Fi? Let us know in the comment section.