There’s an interesting stat from ABI stating more than half of mobile devices will be able to connect to external displays in 2018.
The analyst firm says that hundreds of millions of devices (smartphones / tablets / PCs / projectors) have this functionality now but this is set to increase to 2.1 billion smartphones and tables by 2018. And 60GHz wireless technology (aka WiGig / 802.11ad) will play a key role in enabling this.
ABI’s press announcement stated “The capabilities of the display and availability of adapters between the mobile device and display will remain the gating factor for years to come.”
But wireless standards such as WiGig will be key in enabling this improvement in connectivity with the analyst behind the report, ABI’s Jeff Orr, predicting: “In the next couple years, the battleground will shift toward the use of 60 GHz wireless protocols … capable of pushing 4K video content from the mobile device to the home, office, or vehicle display.”
This fits with the anticipated trend with a recent article from Digitimes stating personal mobile devices are likely to become the hub for all computing experiences at home, in the office, and on-the-go over the next five years.
I’d echo this, the PC is in decline and the tablet / mobile device is replacing them. Ubuntu has even created a phone operating system that switches from mobile to desktop mode when an HDMI cable is plugged in, enabling it to act like a normal PC.
But, as video resolutions (and audio for that matter) improve from SD through 1080p to 4k, files get larger and we need a quick way to transfer these between devices… ideally without the wires. Hence, ABI’s prediction that 802.11ad will be embedded in half of all WiFi chipsets by 2016.
Going back to the original research, Jeff Orr the report made one other interesting point: Hundreds of millions of computers, displays, and projectors are capable of extending displays today, though seemingly unbeknownst to the general public. The technologies are well-integrated, which has led to a lack of market awareness. “Technology ecosystems that are able to rally vendors and device OEMs to promote these new display applications will gain a competitive edge in reaching the first generation of converged mobile computing users,” adds Orr.
Fortunately, this should be easy to do for a standard created specifically for high speed transfer of huge files – such as video.