"Wi-Fi will continue to work its way into home entertainment networking, and will become entrenched," Phil Solis, a senior analyst with ABI Research. "By the time UWB comes out — or just a little later — 802.11n solutions will start to appear."

The 802.11n standard will provide actual speeds of about 100 Mbits/s, which will be enough for intensive applications such as multiple high-definition video streams, Solis said. UWB will offer slightly faster speeds, but Wi-Fi networks will be entrenched in most homes and it has significantly greater range, Solis noted.

"In the end, UWB will wind up being faster, and the chip sets will be cheaper," Solis said. "But if it's going to compete with Wi-Fi in home entertainment networking, it will probably be in non real-time data transfer, such as moving video from a camera or camcorder to a PC, where distance is not an issue."