Where is the China local WIFI 6 chip going?
WIFI chip has gone through 20 years, both the future can be rushed, and there are years to look back, after 6 generations, from the first generation of 802.11b to the future WIFI7 802.11be. For China local WIFI chip companies, WIFI 6 chips are in the process of research and development. From the quantitative point of view, there are more than 50 China local WIFI 6 chip companies, the market is optimistic, the capital is hot, the IoT massive market, it seems that more WIFI chip companies can also tolerate.
The smartphone field is an important entry point for major chip manufacturers to enter the WIFI 6 market, according to the latest report from market research agency Strategy Analytics, Qualcomm, Broadcom and MTK occupy the top three in the smartphone WIFI chip market.
At present, mobile phone SoC processors that support WIFI 6 include Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888, Snapdragon 865, Huawei HiSilicon's Kirin 9000/9000E, Kirin 900, Kirin 985, Apple's A14, MTK's Dimensity 1000+, and Broadcom's WIFI 6 chip BCM4375 module.
However, the China local WIFI 6 chip cannot enter the smartphone market, only Broadcom's four-in-one module is unique with its excellent performance pointers, otherwise they are integrated in the SOC processor.
For the current China local WIFI 6 chip manufacturers, where is the real market for them, is the current problem that needs to be considered and solved. In addition to the smartphone market, where should the China local WIFI 6 chip go?
In the past two years, video transmission, video surveillance, smart city and other IoT fields for WIFI chip performance requirements continue to increase, WIFI 6 technology in VR/AR, ultra-high-definition video and other new high-rate application scenarios have high applicability, Felicomm believes that the future for such applications WIFI 6 chips will continue to increase.
Some reports pointed out that WIFI 6 and WIFI 6E have promoted the smartphone Wi-Fi chip market, and the rapid adoption of these technologies provides growth opportunities for WIFI chip manufacturers, driving the development of WIFI6/WIFI6E routers and the IoT field, making China local router WIFI6 chips usher in spring. From the perspective of the router market, the China local WIFI 6 router chip market size will be about 530 million yuan in 2019, and it is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan in 2023. As the leader of China local router WIFI 6 chips, Siflower Communications launched the first China local WIFI 6 router chip in 2022.
In the mobile phone WIFI 6 market, Broadcom is the only supplier in addition to baseband chip manufacturers, Broadcom cooperates with Apple, and the iPhone 13 adopts Broadcom products. In addition, Broadcom's BCM4375 products have been applied to Samsung S20 series mobile phones. As early as 2020, for smartphone mobile platforms, Broadcom released the world's first WIFI 6E chip BCM4389, using 16nm process and a data transmission rate of 2.4Gbps. In this market, China local WIFI 6 chip manufacturers can only watch from the sidelines in the short term.
On the other hand, in recent years, the IoT technology has flourished, smart speakers, smart home appliances (smart refrigerators, washing machines), sweeping robots, WIFI wireless access points, WIFI wireless bridges, industrial equipment interfaces, etc. emerge one after another, and the WIFI MCU chip field is the key device to realize the IoT.
In September 2021, GigaDevice announced the launch of WIFI MCU products, which are built around the company's core and general MCU business and customer needs for the purpose of improving solutions around the MCU ecosystem. This means that GigaDevice has officially entered the field of WIFI 6 MCUs.
From the perspective of market layout, GigaDevice MCU products are mainly used in automotive electronics, industrial and other fields; SINO Wealth products are mainly used in the field of small household appliances; Espressif's products are mainly used in the field of Internet of Things. With the rise of the Internet of Vehicles and the Industrial Internet of Things, GigaDevice WIFI 6 MCUs will have advantages in this field. As the MCU boss in the field of small household appliances, SINO Wealths' strategic layout is very focused, and it also has its own deep understanding of the ecology, through the acquisition of Montage LZ’s WIFI business, horizontal integration drives synergy effect, and joins the WIFI 6 MCU track.
From the current point of view, WIFI 6 MCU product development, Espressif Technology is superior, in the R & D technology level and technology are in a leading position. Short-range communication is the main connection method of the IoT in the future, and WIFI is the main application technology of short-range communication, cost-effective WIFI MCU will be the trend, and in WIFI 6 and MCU integration process, WIFI 6 technology is more difficult.
From the perspective of China local and foreign enterprises, the acquisition of WIFI business can strengthen their layout in the IoT, smart home, smart city, etc., from the perspective of the entire industry, it has played a certain role in forming the current market pattern of WIFI 6 MCU, making WIFI 6 MCU accelerate into the new Internet of Things application fields in the industrial and consumer markets.
The world changes. With the development of science and technology, everything is connected. 5G and WIFI 6, one changes the world, one changes life.
Felicomm believes that if the China local WIFI 6 chip can grow up under this wave of capital and grasp the opportunities given by the times, it will be full of harvests.