More Than 50% of Remote Controls Shipped in 2018 will be RF Enabled; Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee RF4CE Adoption is Growing Rapidly

​In 2013 10% of the remote controls shipped with major home consumer equipment will be RF-enabled. Over the next five years there will be a major surge in RF technology adoption for remote controls as vendors look to differentiate their products, and/or drive growth in smart home services. While at the same time RF solutions continue to fall in price, implementations become more simplified and lower powers are achieved.

“RF technology has been considered for use in remote controls for many years but its adoption has been limited by a lack of perceived need among device vendors and prohibitive increases in associated costs when compared to IR solutions,” according to Peter Cooney, practice director. “However, over the last five years there has been an upswing in technology development and a rise in the need to make home consumer devices smart that has led to resurgence in using RF.”

Initially proprietary RF technology was used but equipment vendors have been quick to understand the benefits of using a standardized RF technology in remote control design. Three main interoperable standards are seeing adoption: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee RF4CE. Each technology is seeing use in certain sections of the market with vendors choosing to implement a particular technology due to its individual strengths, be it ultra-low power, high bandwidth, or another important feature.

Bluetooth and ZigBee have been the most widely used technologies to date and are expected to see significant growth, with increasing competition from Wi-Fi as lower power solutions continue to be developed.

“The remote control market represents a massive growth opportunity for wireless connectivity technology vendors,” added Cooney. “Over 3.2 billion remote controls will be shipped from 2013 to 2018 with flat panel TVs, set-top boxes, DVD/Blu-ray devices and games consoles alone.”

These findings are found in four ABI Research Services: Bluetooth , ZigBee , Wi-Fi , and First Screen Video Devices .

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com , or call +1.516.624.2500.