$10 B Revenues Expected in 2023, Growth Trajectory to Return After 2024 Contraction.
According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, security, networks, and data center industries, the Wireless LAN (WLAN) market is expected to grow another 12 percent year-over-year in 2023, after hitting a record high of $9 B in 2022. The industry was plagued by supply constraints in 2022 and manufacturers’ backlogs ballooned to record levels.
“Manufacturers are starting to make headway with their backlogged orders,” said Siân Morgan, Wireless LAN Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “And with average prices remaining elevated, 2023 WLAN revenues will hit a new record. However, the high volume of WLAN units shipped in 2022 and expected in 2023 should taper off in 2024.
“As the vendors begin to ship more backlogged products, the bottlenecks will move to systems integrators and enterprises, who must install and integrate these WLAN networks. This will result in a slowdown in new shipments for 2024—a digestion period. Growth is expected to resume in 2025 and beyond. Applications will continue to be thirsty for reliable, high-bandwidth connections and the need for speed is not going away. Luckily, enterprise class Wi-Fi 7 is just around the corner,” continued Morgan.
Additional highlights from the Wireless LAN 5-Year January 2023 Forecast Report:
- 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) adoption, which has been affected by the supply constraints, will continue to expand, peaking in 2024.
- The long stretch of quarters with year-over-year price increases will come to an end.
- Wi-Fi 6E volumes will continue to lag the adoption rate of prior Wi-Fi technologies, while the new 6 GHz ecosystem develops. The first enterprise class 802.11be (Wi-Fi 7) APs are expected to ship before the end of 2023.
- The Asia-Pacific region will outpace the WLAN growth rate of the other macro regions.
- Public Cloud WLAN solutions are growing faster than the market, with an anticipated 2022-2027 CAGR of 10 percent.