Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct Recognized With Connected Home 2011 Award

At the recent Connected Home Global Summit in London, England, the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct program from the Wi-Fi Alliance received top honors in the Best Contribution to Interconnectivity Standards. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct is a certification designation given to products that are capable of device-to-device connections without the presence of a traditional home, office or hotspot network.

"We are proud to be recognized for this important contribution to device connectivity," said Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director of the Wi-Fi Alliance. "Wi-Fi Alliance member companies collaborate to create dynamic and powerful Wi-Fi solutions to improve the usefulness of Wi-Fi in our content-rich world. Wi-Fi Direct is a great example of how Wi-Fi continues to evolve in support of advanced digital home applications."

Wi-Fi Direct connectivity meets an important consumer need for users to enjoy seamless device connectivity, both at home and on the go. Wi-Fi Direct-certified devices can connect with legacy Wi-Fi CERTIFIED devices, making the new technology instantly useful in connecting to products already in consumers' homes. Data transmissions between Wi-Fi Direct devices are always protected with WPA2 security protections, and the process of getting connected is made simple with Wi-Fi Protected Setup, another Wi-Fi Alliance innovation.

Wi-Fi Direct-certified products are making a strong market entry in the digital home category. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct designation has been given to products ranging from core technology silicon to popular consumer electronics such as HD televisions, Blu-Ray players, home theater systems and smartphones. In-Stat, a division of NPD group, recently announced a forecast of 173 million Wi-Fi Direct devices to ship in 2011 – a statistic representing close to one of every five Wi-Fi devices shipped worldwide this year.

"The technology behind Wi-Fi Direct presents an incredibly compelling solution for digital home applications," said Brian O'Rourke, Research Director of In-Stat. "As application developers define new solutions to run over Wi-Fi Direct connections, we expect to see a very strong adoption curve over the coming years."

More information including a current list of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct products, the technical specification, white papers and more, is available at www.wi-fi.org/Wi-Fi_Direct.php.