Frost &Sullivan warns that the European WLAN public access hotspots market is “starting to look like a hype bubble”. It says many suppliers are getting excited about the business opportunity of WLAN hotspots, despite a “widespread failure to address the technical and business challenges that need to be overcome”.

Important markets for WLAN are: the enterprise market because of its high use of notebook PCs and growing demand for access to network services; and vertical markets where it is gaining popularity, such as transportation, distribution and medical.

Total subscription revenues in the European WLAN hotspots market will rise from EU18 million in 2002 to EU1 billion by the end of 2006, says the research group.

Another wireless technology, however, has survived “a rollercoaster hype curve”, to reach maturity, says Frost &Sullivan in a recent study. Bluetooth, it says, has reached the stage where interoperability is rarely a problem, the issue of interference with other radio technologies is fading, and integrating it into new applications is less of a challenge.

The research company says that shipments of bluetooth chipset solutions have been more than doubling annually. Just under 10 million units shipped in 2001, 34 million in 2002, and more than 70 million units in 2003.

	Bluetooth chipset solution shipments Source: Frost &Sullivan