802.11ac to represent nearly 65% of access point shipments in 2016

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2016
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802.11ac CPE Shipments Rise to Represent Nearly 65% of All Access Points in 2016, WiGig to Enter the Market

  • ABI Research Anticipates 802.11ac Wi-Fi Shipments to Gain Momentum with Wave 2 and Tri-Band Products

SINGAPORE — Wi-Fi access points based on 802.11ac steadily gained momentum over the past year, rising to represent 39% of total Wi-Fi access points shipped in 2015. According to ABI Research, the leader in transformative technology innovation market intelligence, adoption will continue to accelerate in 2016 as more 802.11ac Wave 2 products enter the market, along with the introduction of tri-band access points.

“Wave 2 access points are based on a richer set of technologies in the 802.11ac specification,” says Sam Rosen, Managing Director and Vice President at ABI Research. “This includes MU-MIMO, which supports better efficiency for high density wireless environments. We forecast Wave 2 access points to spearhead 802.11ac shipments, with those shipments representing nearly 65% of total Wi-Fi access points in 2016.”

In addition to the emergence of Wave 2 product this year, tri-band access points are likely to hit the market in the first half of 2016. Tri-band Wi-Fi products use 802.11n, 802.11ac, and 802.11ad in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 60 GHz bands, respectively, and are backward compatible to the older protocols within each band.

“If all goes according to plan, TP-Link’s Talon AD product line will kick-start the market for tri-band access points with WiGig (802.11 ad),” concludes Rosen. “The access points, however, are likely to take an additional one to two years’ time before they gain significant market share in the overall Wi-Fi CPE market.”

Moving beyond the scope of this year’s market data to take a look at the overall market, ABI Research predicts Wi-Fi access point shipments to surpass 204 million units in consumer applications and 19.3 million units in enterprise in 2020, with the majority of those shipments supporting 802.11ac.

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Set-Top Box and Home Gateway and Wi-Fi Services, which include research reports, market data, insights and competitive assessments.