The numbers assist this acceleration. The Wi-Fi Alliance forecasts 1.1 billion whole Wi-Fi 7 system shipments in 2026, together with 196.1 million IoT units, 22.3 million healthcare units and 159.4 million shopper units.
Giant public venues and academic establishments are main the cost. In accordance with Platon, these sectors see Wi-Fi 7 as the answer to spectrum congestion challenges and as an enabler of latest use instances.
Wi-Fi 8 arrives forward of schedule
The massive story for 2026, nonetheless, is more likely to be Wi-Fi 8. In a growth that breaks from typical wi-fi era timelines, shopper merchandise may arrive a lot prior to anticipated.
“Broadcom launched a full ecosystem of Wi-Fi 8 merchandise in October 2025,” Szymanski revealed. “We count on the retail market to behave shortly on this product availability, and the market may see Wi-Fi 8 merchandise as early as Summer time 2026.”
This timeline represents a big acceleration. The IEEE 802.11bn Activity Group fashioned in Could 2021 with a goal normal approval date of September 2028. Broadcom’s ecosystem launch places Wi-Fi 8 retail merchandise on monitor to reach earlier than the usual is finalized. The hole between Wi-Fi 7’s launch and potential Wi-Fi 8 product launches in mid-2026 may probably be shorter than the standard cycle between Wi-Fi generations.
Whereas shopper adoption may come early, the enterprise and operator markets will comply with a extra conventional adoption sample. “It’s doubtless that such merchandise won’t launch till mid to late 2027,” Szymanski famous. These sectors sometimes transfer extra intentionally resulting from longer refresh cycles and procurement processes.
