A report from IDC predicts that demand for Wi‑Fi products will rebound in 2024 after two underwhelming years.
The pandemic initially boosted shipments, producing an 8.6 percent increase in Wi‑Fi‑enabled device shipments in 2021. That surge, however, proved short‑lived.
In 2022, declines in smartphone and PC shipments dragged down the broader Wi‑Fi market, causing shipments to drop for the first time in decades. IDC’s figures show Wi‑Fi product shipments declined 4.9 percent in 2022, falling to 3.8 billion units.
IDC expects the market to remain largely flat in 2023, with shipments of roughly 3.9 billion units.
Looking ahead to 2024, IDC forecasts a recovery, projecting 6.4 percent growth to reach about 4.1 billion units. The research firm notes that roughly two‑thirds of 2023 shipments will be Wi‑Fi 6 or Wi‑Fi 6E devices, and adoption will continue as more Wi‑Fi 6 chipsets designed for IoT devices become available.
Phil Solis, Research Director for Connectivity and Smartphone Semiconductors at IDC, explained:
“The drop in Wi‑Fi shipments the market experienced in 2022 is unprecedented, caused by temporarily increased shipments of certain product types in 2021 and exacerbated by a drop in demand in the second half of 2022.”
Solis added that growth should return as more Wi‑Fi 6 and 6E devices enter the market, Wi‑Fi 7 chipsets begin rolling into higher‑end devices and access points, and discrete Wi‑Fi solutions expand in primary client devices and other product categories.
The report also highlights that eight Wi‑Fi‑enabled product categories are expected to ship more than 100 million units in 2023, a figure projected to grow to 11 categories by 2027.
Primary client devices—smartphones, media tablets, and PCs—remain central to overall shipments, accounting for roughly 40 percent of Wi‑Fi shipments in 2023. Their share has eased recently, however, due to a flattening in those markets and faster growth among Wi‑Fi‑enabled IoT and endpoint devices.
IoT devices surpassed smartphones in shipment volume in 2021 and are forecast to overtake all primary client devices by 2027. IoT accounted for about 37 percent of Wi‑Fi shipments in 2022 and is expected to exceed 40 percent by 2027.
IDC’s report, Worldwide Wi‑Fi Technology Forecast, 2023–2027, presents Wi‑Fi‑enabled product shipments from 2005 through 2027 in a pivot‑table format. The dataset is broken down across 11 markets, more than 50 product categories and several hundred product types. It segments products into primary clients, IoT/endpoints, heavy and light edge infrastructure, networking infrastructure, and storage, and it categorizes shipments by Wi‑Fi protocol up to Wi‑Fi 7.
(Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash)
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