According to new a research report from Berg Insight, WLAN will become the next prevalent connectivity technology in mass-market mobile handsets. 

The number of handsets with integrated WLAN is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 71.5% from 27 million in 2007 to 400 million in 2012, corresponding to an attach rate of 25%.

WLAN will primarily be used for high-speed Internet access in home or office networks and file transfer, e.g. of photos and media libraries.

"Mobile operators no longer consider WLAN a threat against data revenues", said André Malm, telecom analyst at Berg Insight. "As flat-rate plans for data access become the norm, encouraging subscribers to use a local Internet connection actually makes much sense as a way to prevent data overload in mobile networks."

Berg Insight has a more cautious outlook for the adoption of other connectivity technologies such as NFC and UWB in mobile handsets. The number of handsets with integrated NFC or FeliCa is forecast to grow from 35 million in 2007 to 215 million in 2012 - a CAGR of 43.8%, which corresponds to an attach rate of 13%.

UWB is not expected to appear in significant volumes before 2010, and will only be featured in 1% of handsets shipped in 2012.

While Berg Insight recognises a significant potential for both technologies, the company believes that neither have yet become widespread enough to motivate integration in high-volume handsets.

NFC is closest to achieving a breakthrough, which could be achieved as early as 2010 or 2011.

Berg Insight's new report - Future Handset Connectivity Technologies - provides first-hand insight into the development of Bluetooth, WLAN, NFC and UWB technologies for mobile handsets.

This report in the VAS Research Series from Berg Insight provides unique business intelligence, including five-year industry forecasts and expert commentary.

Click here to see an overview of the report and the table of contents.

• Report published: June 2008
• Number of pages: 100
• Report price:
• Paper copy: €1,500
• PDF (1-5 users): €2,250
• PDF corporate licence: €4,500