Meanwhile, vendors sensitive to eroding prices are cutting back on some functions of their Wi-Fi 7 APs, and this is expected to increase the adoption of the new technology over the next five years, Dell’Oro Group says.

Dell’Oro Group research director Siân Morgan attributes the drop to the digestion of previous WLAN shipments and cautiousness of some enterprises due to macroeconomic conditions.

“We expect to see signs of recovery in 4Q 2024 once excess inventory is flushed through the system, and the market returns to demand-driven dynamics,” Morgan says.

“IT budgets are stretched. On one hand, enterprises are under pressure to figure out how Generative AI can revolutionise their businesses. On the other hand, companies need highly performing networks to enable digital transformations. Vendors sensitive to these pressures are releasing cost-effective Wi-Fi 7 APs which will help accelerate the adoption of this latest generation of Wi-Fi,” adds Morgan.

Findings from the Wireless LAN 5-Year July 2024 Forecast Report include:

AIOps features are driving up license revenues and delivering significant value to enterprises facing labour difficulties.

Wi-Fi 6E adoption is still growing but will be eclipsed by Wi-Fi 7 in 2025.

If the closing of HPE’s acquisition of Juniper Networks is delayed due to regulatory concerns, WLAN revenues could suffer as enterprises opt to wait before buying.

The first AP shipments of the standard expected to be branded as “Wi-Fi 8” are expected in 2028 and will be focused on increasing reliability instead of expanding capacity.