The wireless LAN market is expected to grow another 11% this year as newfound supply floods into the market, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group, which adds that manufacturers based in China have leapfrogged to WiFi 7, already testing the new APs with their key customers.
“Most manufacturers will be bringing enterprise-class WiFi 7 products to the market in 2024, a year in which revenues are expected to contract, after the peaks of 2022 and 2023,” says Siân Morgan, wireless LAN research director at Dell’Oro Group. “WiFi 7 revenues may have a slow start, but will pick up when the market accelerates again as digital transformation projects continue to drive IT investments.
“Once WiFi 7 AP shipments become material we’re going to see a surge in LAN speeds,” Morgan says. “The uplink ports on the high-end WiFi 7 products are 10 times the speed of those on most of the APs shipped today. This will mean switch upgrades and new cabling for many enterprises.”
Additional highlights from the wireless LAN 5-Year July 2023 Forecast Report include:
* The liquidation of backlogs will mean record 2023 revenues for most manufacturers.
* WiFi 6E adoption picked up slightly in Q1 of 2023, but will still remain a small portion of the APs shipped in 2023.
* The vision of global spectrum harmonisation is at risk leading into the World Radiocommunication Conference in November – which could increase market fragmentation and product costs.
* Public Cloud Wireless LAN solutions continue to grow faster than the market, but recurring licence costs are not keeping pace with the installed base of equipment.