Consumer WLAN Revenue Fell in 2021 but Rose 12.6% From 2019: IDC

Global revenue in the enterprise segment of the wireless local area network market grew 21.8% in Q4 to $2.3 billion and was up 20.4% for full-year 2021 to $7.6 billion, fueled by growing Wi-Fi 6 adoption, reported IDC Wednesday. The consumer segment of the WLAN market declined 10.1% year over year in Q4 and was down 2.5% for the full year, it said. The decline in the “consumer-class” WLAN market was largely due to difficult comparisons with the strong results in 2020, when consumers upgraded their wireless connectivity in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, said IDC. Compared with full-year 2019 before the pandemic, the consumer market grew 12.6% in 2021, “indicating that the market's fundamentals remain strong,” it said. Wi-Fi 6 products continued to grow in the consumer market, generating 28.2% of the segment's revenue and 13.1% of its unit shipments, it said.