Data from IDC found shipments of Wi-Fi enabled products declined in 2022 due to a corresponding decrease in smartphone and PC shipments, but the research company expects the market to rebound.

Shipments of Wi-Fi enabled devices grew 8.6 per cent in 2021 due to pandemic driven market changes but dropped 4.9 per cent to 3.8 billion in 2022.

Phil Solis, research director, connectivity and smartphone semiconductors at IDC, stated the decrease in shipments last year was “unprecedented” and “exacerbated by a drop in demand in the second half of 2022”.

IDC forecast the market will be relatively flat in 2023 with shipments of 3.9 billion products while 2024 will see 6.4 per cent growth to 4.1 billion products.

Two thirds of the shipments this year will be enabled with Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E. The research company expects those shipments will continue to grow as more Wi-Fi 6 chipsets targeting IoT devices hit the market.

Solis stated there was growth going forward for Wi-Fi shipments due to more Wi-Fi 6 and 6E devices coming into play as well as Wi-Fi 7 chips ramping up in higher-end devices and access points and “more discrete Wi-Fi solutions in primary client devices and other product types”.

Breaking down the data for 2023, IDC’s report stated eight Wi-Fi-enabled product types will ship over 100 million units.

The primary client devices for Wi-Fi shipments in 2023 are expected to be smartphones, media tablets and PCs. Those devices will account for around 40 per cent of the shipments this year.

IoT reached 37 percent of all shipments in 2022 and will surpass 40 percent in 2027. IDC’s press release stated IoT surpassed smartphones in 2021 and will pass all primary client devices by 2027.