Wi-Fi market on an upswing

The market for wireless home networking products continues to climb, helped along by falling prices for Wi-Fi products, according to research firm In-Stat/MDR.

The volume of Wi-Fi products shipped to the business market is expected to jump 65 percent to 11.6 million units in 2002 compared with 2001, and the amount of products for the home market is expected to increase by 160 percent to 6.8 million units. Market revenue is anticipated to grow by only 23 percent, from $1.8 billion in 2001 to $2.2 billion in 2002, due to decreasing prices for 802.11b products. According to In-Stat/MDR analyst Gemma Paulo, data security on wireless networks is the most talked about topic within business circles, while the Wi-Fi "Achilles heel" for consumers is the lack of multimedia support.