WIFi 5 Final Madness 2019 Wireless Router Market Report

In 2019, the wireless router market faced the fierce momentum of the first batch of WiFi 6 products, and WiFi 5 products set off the final frenzy. In terms of products, full gigabit port + 1300Mbps speed has become standard. In the second half of the market, various manufacturers have successively launched low-priced products of 2100Mbps, lowering the specifications of the original fever-level products to around 150 yuan. The reason for the speed increase and price reduction is simple. The WiFi6 routers that originally cost thousands of yuan have been reduced to a popular price of 400 yuan by some manufacturers.

In this context, the market structure has also undergone significant changes. The old overlord has abdicated, the new king has ascended the throne, and the major princes are eyeing the throne of the wireless router market. What are the specific changes in the wireless router market in 2019? Let's take a look!

Basic data analysis

1. The new king ascends the throne

Throughout 2019, TP-Link, which had been the leader in the wireless router market, has fallen from grace, and its brand awareness ranks second with a 14.9% share. From previous reports, we can see that TP-Link's market awareness has continued to decline, and it finally fell from the throne in 2019.

The old overlord abdicated and the new king ascended the throne. In the past two years, Huawei has continued to grow at a high speed and finally succeeded in counterattacking. In 2019, it obtained a brand attention ratio of 16.8%, ranking first in brand attention. In 2019, Huawei successively launched flagship products such as Huawei Router WS5200 Enhanced Edition, Huawei Router Q2 Pro, Huawei Router WS5200 Quad-Core Edition, Huawei 5G CPE Pro, and Huawei Router A2. From the perspective of user experience, whether it is performance, ease of use or functionality, it is in a leading position, so it has won the favor of a large number of consumers.

The third and fourth places are Tenda and ASUS, with market brand attention of 8.9% and 8.2% respectively. Tenda focuses on the ultimate cost-effectiveness, frequently breaking through the bottom price of high-performance products, and bringing high-speed and low-priced products to consumers. ASUS continues to focus on the fever, high-end and e-sports markets. In 2019, in addition to continuing to release high-end flagships, it also launched several WiFi 6 e-sports routers, becoming the first choice for players.

The fifth to tenth places are D-Link, Volans, Cisco, Aite, Linksys, and iQiyi. The attention ratios of the fifth to tenth places are not much different, so they can be classified as the third group.

It can be seen that the wireless router market in 2019 presented a pattern of "two supers, two strongs, and many heroes emerging".

2. WiFi experience is the real deal

Price focus range of China's wireless router market in 2019

In 2019, consumers are more willing to spend money on good wireless networks. A shift has been made from "just having WiFi" to "good WiFi". From the data, although the proportion of attention to wireless router products below 100 yuan is still ranked first at 18.43%, the overall difference with other attention ranges is not much. The proportion of attention to 100-150 yuan is 16.8%, the proportion of attention to 150-200 yuan is 16.15%, the proportion of attention to 200-300 yuan is 15.42%, and the proportion of attention to 300-500 yuan is 12.63%. It can be seen that wireless routers priced between 100-500 yuan have become the first choice of consumers, accounting for 61%.

The mid-to-high-end price range of 500-1000 yuan and above 1000 yuan has a focus rate of 20.57%. Most of the products in this range have game acceleration function, and e-sports, mobile game, and console players are the main consumers in this range; in addition, mesh sets, power line products and other router options for large apartments and villa users are also in this range.

Mobile games, TV series, video chats, online classes and other applications have raised consumers' requirements for home WiFi to a higher level. Compared with the negative emotions caused by lag, why not spend a little money to have a better WiFi experience?

3. The best seller is here

Among the top 10 wireless router models that users paid attention to in the Chinese wireless router market in 2019, three products received more than 3.5% of the attention, namely TP-LINK TL-WDR5620, Huawei Router Q2 Pro, and Huawei 5G CPE Pro. As a high-quality and low-priced product, TL-WDR5620 is very popular among small and medium-sized families. Huawei Router Q2 Pro solves the problem of WiFi full-house coverage in large apartments, flats, and villas. Huawei 5G CPE Pro is the first commercial 5G router, and it has won the favor of consumers in the craze of 5G official commercialization.

Huawei, which has the highest market attention, has four products, becoming the leader in the list. In addition, there are three Honor brand products, one Tenda product and one Xiaomi product. Huawei + Honor has a total of seven products on the list. It can be said that these seven products are hot products in the domestic market in 2019. Tenda AC23 has achieved 2100Mbps in the price range of 160 yuan, which can be called a price killer.

4. Dual-band is standard and triple-band is extremely fast

It's 2019, and you haven't switched to a dual-band wireless router yet? From the data, we can see that the attention rate of dual-band products has reached 60.83%, and the attention rate of tri-band products has reached 30.19%. Wireless routers with a single 2.4GHz frequency band only have a pitiful 8.98% of attention. The data of core parameters further reflects that consumers have higher and higher requirements for wireless routers. Dual-band has become the standard, and faster tri-band routers are growing rapidly.

Industry Analysis and Outlook

1. What is the domestic wireless router market like in 2020

WiFi 6: Better usability, better appearance, and better coverage

WiFi 6 will explode in 2020. Since the second half of 2019, terminals have gradually been equipped with WiFi 6 network cards, and the broadband level has been further accelerated. This is good news for WiFi 6 wireless routers.

What is even more useful is that manufacturers will further explore and segment user needs. The e-sports routers, home routers, coverage packages and other market segments will develop further in 2020.

Appearance is justice, and it still works in the wireless router market. Many consumers I have come into contact with don’t care about the parameters at all, and appearance is the most important thing. Especially if it can perfectly integrate into the home environment, it is the right way to say goodbye to the stupid, big, black and thick small box.

The coverage problem is still unsolved in most domestic users' homes. Due to the characteristics of domestic building structures and building materials, consumers are more concerned about the wall penetration performance of wireless routers. Mesh packages, powerline modems and other packages that focus on large apartments and villas without WiFi coverage will continue to be popular, especially products with high cost performance.

2. Fastest growing companies

Huawei is undoubtedly the fastest growing company in China's wireless router market in 2019. In 2019, Huawei launched six new products, including Huawei Router WS5200 Enhanced Edition, Huawei Router Q2 Pro, Huawei Router WS5200 Quad-Core Edition, Huawei 5G CPE Pro, Huawei Router A2, and Huawei Router WS5106. Among them, Huawei Router Q2 Pro and Huawei 5G CPE Pro won the CESA 2019 Best Smart Home Product Award and CESA 2019 Best Network Communication Product Award respectively, and Huawei Router A2 won the 2019 Star Award.

It is not difficult to see from such data that Huawei routers' victory in the Chinese market in 2019 is a reflection of strength. I believe there are two factors that can achieve such results, one is price and the other is Internet experience. In terms of price, the main home products cover the mainstream home market of 400-100 yuan, all with dual gigabit as standard. In addition, Internet experience is the core competitiveness of Huawei routers. Its products can realize practical functions such as game acceleration, one-touch Internet access, children's Internet protection, and elderly Internet access, especially for Huawei terminals. Very good adaptation, such as automatic Internet acceleration for Huawei mobile phones.

3. The family battlefield is becoming more intense

Starting at 200M and capped at 1000M, as high-speed broadband becomes more popular among families, home wireless routers are also experiencing a wave of replacement. Moreover, wireless routers in 2020 must not only be able to fully utilize the performance of home broadband, but also further refine practical functions based on actual user needs. For example, online course acceleration, game acceleration, and Internet protection for children and the elderly, home wireless routers have become an important segment, and the price range of around 100-400 yuan has become the main battlefield for major manufacturers.

4. Cultivate users to transition to WiFi 6

Wireless routers that support WiFi 6 are undoubtedly one of the key development focuses of manufacturers in 2020, but it seems that users are not very willing to buy it. How to cultivate users to evolve to WiFi 6 has become a problem that troubles manufacturers. First of all, the price of WiFi 6 wireless routers is still sky-high; although the lowest price of WiFi 6 routers launched by TP-LINK is only 399 yuan, its network speed has also shrunk accordingly. Moreover, the main application of WiFi 6 is not yet obvious. To maximize the use of home broadband, the current WiFi 5 can already meet this need, resulting in insufficient motivation for users to change their devices except for trying new things.

Although WiFi 6 is a problem that troubles manufacturers, it is also an opportunity for them. Ultra-high speed, low latency, support for more concurrent devices, and better transmission algorithms will make users' Internet experience at home even better. At present, most WiFi 6 chips are from Intel and Qualcomm. Huawei's WiFi 6 chips are expected to be commercially available in 2020. When terminals and routers are equipped with WiFi 6 technology as standard, the huge market will usher in another wave of WiFi 6 updates.