Q3 Slump: WLAN Market Takes a Hit

The enterprise segment of the WLAN market experienced a decline of 5.2% year-on-year in Q3, reaching $2.5 billion, according to a report by IDC. Meanwhile, the consumer segment of the WLAN market saw a larger decline of 13.7% year-on-year.

Wi-Fi 6, the latest wireless standard, accounted for 57.9% of the market segment's revenues, while Wi-Fi 5 still held a significant share at 32.4% of market revenues.

However, the adoption of Wi-Fi 6E, which expands Wi-Fi to include the 6 GHz band of spectrum, remained relatively low in the consumer segment, making up just 6.2% of revenues. Nevertheless, its adoption continued to grow in Q3.

During the third quarter, Wi-Fi 6E revenues experienced a growth of 13.0% compared to the previous quarter, representing 20.4% of dependent access point (AP) revenues and 9.6% of the quarter's unit shipments. Wi-Fi 6 dominated the remaining dependent AP revenues (74.8%) and unit shipments (76.6%), with the legacy Wi-Fi 5 standard making up the balance.

Looking at regional trends, the WLAN market in the United States increased by 1.2% year over year in Q3. However, in Canada, the market experienced a decline of 3.9%. In Latin America, on the other hand, the market saw a significant rise of 23.5%. In Western Europe, the market declined by 11.2%, while in Central and Eastern Europe, the decline was 6.7%. In the Middle East & Africa region, market revenues rose by 7.5%. In the Asia/Pacific region, excluding Japan and China, the market fell slightly by 0.6%. In China, the market experienced a significant decline of 24.1%, and in Japan, it fell by 12.8%.