The numbers support this acceleration. The Wi-Fi Alliance forecasts 1.1 billion total Wi-Fi 7 device shipments in 2026, including 196.1 million IoT devices, 22.3 million healthcare devices and 159.4 million consumer devices.
Large public venues and educational institutions are leading the charge. According to Platon, these sectors see Wi-Fi 7 as the solution to spectrum congestion challenges and as an enabler of new use cases.
Wi-Fi 8 arrives ahead of schedule
The big story for 2026, however, is likely to be Wi-Fi 8. In a development that breaks from typical wireless generation timelines, consumer products could arrive much sooner than anticipated.
“Broadcom launched a full ecosystem of Wi-Fi 8 products in October 2025,” Szymanski revealed. “We expect the retail market to act quickly on this product availability, and the market could see Wi-Fi 8 products as early as Summer 2026.”
This timeline represents a significant acceleration. The IEEE 802.11bn Task Group formed in May 2021 with a target standard approval date of September 2028. Broadcom’s ecosystem launch puts Wi-Fi 8 retail products on track to arrive before the standard is finalized. The gap between Wi-Fi 7’s launch and potential Wi-Fi 8 product launches in mid-2026 could potentially be shorter than the typical cycle between Wi-Fi generations.
While consumer adoption might come early, the enterprise and operator markets will follow a more traditional adoption pattern. “It’s likely that such products will not launch until mid to late 2027,” Szymanski noted. These sectors typically move more deliberately due to longer refresh cycles and procurement processes.
