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Smart antennas will pay off
August 2, 2004
Smart Antennas will be a major winner in providing new revenue waves for wireless companies in mature markets according to a ground-breaking new report released by West Technology Research Solutions. Wireless technology efficiency is now a necessity, not an "add on." Shipments in 2008 for 3G adoption alone will reach 155 million units. Smart antenna technology will extend the range and increase the efficiency of communications in many wireless communication technologies and protocols. Diminishing spectrum availability coupled with increased demand define the need for this evolving technology. Market leaders like Intel, Motia, and ArrayComm are already heavily committed, but there's plenty more room.
This unique report provides strategic analysis of thirteen market segments, i.e. potential applications, competition within the segment, advantages and disadvantages of Smart Antennas, and recent events that could portend a shift in the adoption rate of Smart Antennas in that particular segment. The report also details sales volume, unit shipments, and average selling price by vertical market segment as well as by geography, all segmented into three global GDP growth scenarios. Additionally, the report analyzes macroeconomic factors that include the current economic climate as it relates to Smart Antenna technology implementation, regulatory influences, and an analysis of companies selling Smart Antenna and other adaptive antenna array products. The report includes up-to-date patent information; it provides a comprehensive OEM analysis and corporate profile information of the key companies currently developing Smart Antenna technologies and products.
Smart Antennas have been around for decades, evolving along with the semiconductor innovation cycles, getting ever "smarter." For the past ten-plus years, and with the development of multiple antennas for transmission and reception known also as space-time communication, Smart Antenna technology has become a serious R&D arena. It is a branch of wireless communications that makes use of the "space dimension" (i.e. antennas) along with the traditional time dimension in modulation and coding at the transmitter, and demodulation and decoding at the receiver, in order to improve the performance of wireless links. Hence Smart Antenna technology has become essential to the future of wireless communication and data transfer, the former because the spectrum is becoming increasingly more tightly populated, the latter because technological development has improved the transfer rate to an extent where efficiency is no longer just a choice but a principal requirement.
Today, companies in the US, Japan, and Europe are in high gear to take advantage of the benefits that smart antennas promise. With increasing adoption of wireless access and wireless service on the part of the consumer, the imminence of pervasive 3G service (UMTS and CDMA2000), 4G already more than a concept, and diminishing available spectrum have combined to make smart antenna technology essential. Already in use in combination with cell phones, television and in industrial applications, smart antennas are no longer a choice, but a necessity, for the industrialized world. It is clear, for example, that without smart antenna technology WiMAX and WLAN applications cannot utilize their full potential.
At its foundation, the evolution and development of Smart Antenna hardware and software have been driven by economics. Smart Antenna technology is moving directly into maturing markets that are ready and waiting to add supplementary options to existing products. It is a classic curve in industry, to be seized upon by those who recognize the signs of economic downturn and look for an opportunity for regeneration. As such, Smart Antenna technology offers a second revenue wave in a channel that is already an established presence in a matured segment, but which is experiencing declining margins.
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