'Wi-Fi technology developing strongly'

There will be strong developments in Wi-Fi technology over the next few years, with chipset sales expected to reach one billion in 2011, according to figures from ABI Research.

John Dunn, editor of IT website Techworld, said Wi-Fi has had a major impact on the home networking market because of its low cost and technical maturity, although its relatively short range is a drawback.

Wi-Fi can help deliver fast connection speeds for use with VoIP solutions and to enable quicker download times from the internet.

Mr Dunn said: "Wi-Fi does have some drawbacks, such as power drain and a short range, which is why the next generation of wireless system will be something along the lines of Wimax, which can transmit data over long range."

Wi-Fi chipsets are used in a range of devices, with more than 100 million to be used with smartphones alone during the course of this year, according to figures from ABI Research.