The latest analysis of WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 market!

WiFi has been expanding its deployment and application scope, from computers and networks to mobile, consumer and IoT-related devices. The WiFi industry has developed the WiFi 6 standard to cover low-power IoT nodes and broadband applications. WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 have added new 6GHz spectrum to meet higher bandwidth applications such as 8k video and XR display. The added 6GHz spectrum is also expected to achieve high-reliability industrial IoT solutions by improving interference and latency.

This article will discuss the WiFi market and applications, with a particular focus on WiFi 6E and WiFi 7.

WiFi Market and Applications

After strong market growth in 2021, the WiFi market is expected to grow by 4.1%, reaching approximately 4.5 billion connections in 2022. We forecast rapid growth in 2023-2027, reaching approximately 5.7 billion in 2027. Smart home, automotive, and embedded IoT applications will heavily support the growth in WiFi device shipments.

The WiFi 6 market started in 2019 and grew rapidly in 2020 and 2022. WiFi 6 will account for about 24% of the entire WiFi market in 2022. By 2027, WiFi 6 and WiFi 7 will account for about 2/3 of the WiFi market. In addition, 6GHz WiFi 6E and WiFi 7 will increase from 4.1% in 2022 to 18.8% in 2027.

6GHz WiFi 6E will initially gain popularity in the U.S. market in 2021, followed by the European market in 2022. WiFi 7 devices will begin shipping in 2023 and are expected to surpass WiFi 6E shipments by 2025.

6GHz WiFi has great advantages in broadband, gaming, and video streaming applications. It is also an important application scenario in specific industrial IoT solutions that require high reliability and low latency communications, such as factory robot automation and AGV. 6GHz WiFi also improves the accuracy of WiFi positioning, allowing WiFi positioning to achieve more accurate positioning functions over long distances.

WiFi Market Challenges

There are two main challenges in the deployment of 6GHz WiFi market, spectrum availability and additional costs. 6GHz spectrum allocation policies vary from country to country. According to current policies, China and Russia will not allocate 6GHz spectrum for WiFi. China currently plans to use 6GHz for 5G, so China, the largest WiFi market, will lack certain advantages in the future WiFi 7 market.

Another challenge for 6GHz WiFi is the additional cost of the RF front end (wideband PA, switches, and filters). The new WiFi 7 chip modules will add another cost for the digital baseband/MAC part to increase data throughput. Therefore, 6GHz WiFi will be mainly adopted in developed countries and high-end smart devices.

WiFi vendors began shipping 2.4GHz single-band WiFi 6 chipsets in 2021, replacing the traditional WiFi 4 widely adopted in IoT devices. New features such as TWT (target wake time) and BSS color increase the benefits of IoT devices by adding lower power operation and better spectrum utilization. By 2027, 2.4GHz single-band WiFi 6 will account for 13% of the market share.

In terms of applications, WiFi access points/routers/broadband gateways, high-end smartphones and PCs were the first to adopt WiFi 6 in 2019, and these are still the main applications of WiFi 6 so far. In 2022, smartphones, PCs and WiFi network devices will account for 84% of WiFi 6/6E shipments. During 2021-2022, more and more WiFi applications will turn to WiFi 6. Smart home devices such as smart TVs and smart speakers began to adopt WiFi 6 in 2021; home and industrial IoT applications, and cars also began to adopt the WiFi 6 standard in 2022.

WiFi networks, high-end smartphones, and personal computers are the main applications of WiFi 6E / WiFi 7. In addition, 8k TVs and VR headsets are also expected to become the main applications of 6GHz WiFi. By 2025, 6GHz WiFi 6E will be used in automotive infotainment and industrial automation.

Single-band WiFi 6 is expected to be used in low-data-speed WiFi applications such as home appliances, home IoT devices, webcams, smart wearables, and industrial automation.

WiFi 6/7 chipset module major manufacturers

Qualcomm, Broadcom, and Intel were the first companies to bring WiFi 6 chip modules to the market in 2019, followed by Infineon (Cypress), NXP, MediaTek, ON Semiconductor, MaxLinear (Intel), and Renesas (Celeno) in 2020. During 2021-2022, Synaptics, Realtek, Espressif, and Beken also joined the race.

In 2021, Broadcom (smartphones, tablets, PCs, WiFi networks), Qualcomm (smartphones, tablets, PCs, WiFi networks), and Intel (for PCs) account for more than 85% of the WiFi 6 chip market. MediaTek, NXP, ON Semiconductor and other companies also got a piece of the "cake" in 2021. With the increasing number of WiFi 6 applications, the market for WiFi 6 chips will become more diversified.

The WiFi 7 chip module was announced in the second quarter of 2022, and the WiFi 7 Draft 2 (WiFi 7 Release 1) standard has also been released. Qualcomm, Broadcom and MediaTek were the first to release WiFi 7 chip modules, and Intel is expected to release WiFi 7 chip modules in early 2023.

In WiFi 7 chip modules, MediaTek and Broadcom (for mobile devices) use 6/7nm advanced semiconductor process nodes. Since 6/7nm IC design requires huge development costs, this is an obstacle for small and medium-sized semiconductor companies to develop high-end WiFi 7 chipsets in the future.

For single-band WiFi 6 chip modules, Espressif is in the leading position in production, followed by Beken and AIC Semiconductor. Domestic IC suppliers will give priority to WiFi 6 chip modules in IoT WiFi chipsets.

Summarize

In the future, our lifestyle will change due to the Internet of Things, which will inevitably require connectivity, and the continuous enhancement of WiFi has also provided tremendous innovation for the connection of the Internet of Things. From the current progress of standards, WiFi 7 will greatly improve and enhance the application and experience of wireless terminals. At present, home users may not have to follow the trend to pursue WiFi 7 devices, which can play a greater role for industrial users.