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June 27, 2008

Report: Wireless LAN Product Shipments, Revenue on the Rise


Hi-tech market researchers say they’re seeing more money being spent on fewer shipped wireless local area network infrastructure units, a sign of higher-priced 802.11n products



 
According to London-based Infonetics Research (News - Alert), the market – which includes independent and dependent access points and wireless LAN, or “WLAN,” switches and controllers – hit an all-time high of $499 million last quarter, up from 1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007.
 
Richard Webb, directing analyst for wireless and mobile devices at Infonetics, said the products are leaving their mark on the overall wireless market, as vendors report accelerated shipments.
 
“It looks like enterprise WiFi products will migrate from 802.11g to 802.11n as rapidly as 802.11b products migrated to 802.11g several years ago,” Webb said. “Yes, enterprises would like to see a return on their 802.11g investments before making significant upgrades, but the speed benefits of 802.11n are undeniable, with adoption being driven by the increase in new notebooks and PDAs with embedded 802.11n.”
 
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ so-called “802.11n” is an amendment to the “IEEE 802.11-2007” wireless networking standard, experts say. It’s expected to improve network throughput over previous standards, such as 802.11b and 802.11g, with some experts saying that this wireless technology’s potential 248 megabits-per-second data rate will finally allow consumers to move beyond traditional wired Ethernet local area networks.
 
For their report, Infonetics officials say they tracked a wide variety of infrastructure products. These include WLAN independent access points split by enterprise and service provider, dependent access points, WLAN switches and controllers, and enterprise single-mode WiFi phones. In the report, WLAN hardware revenue is broken out by enterprise and service provider customers.
 
Infonetics found that Cisco continues to dominate the worldwide WLAN equipment market, holding the number one position in enterprise and service provider segments.
 
Cisco is one of a handful of brand-name companies tracked in the report, along with 3Com (News - Alert), Aerohive Networks, Aruba Networks, Belden, Browan, Colubris, D-Link, Extreme Networks, Gemtek, HTC, Meru Networks, Motorola, NETGEAR, Polycom, ProCurve, Proxim, Siemens SHC, SMC Networks, Trapeze Networks and Vocera (News - Alert).
 
After Cisco, the report uncovered a more closely fought contest for top positions, among 3Com, Aruba, HP, Motorola (News - Alert) and Trapeze – “a battle of WLAN specialists versus integrated enterprise vendors,” Infonetics officials say.
 
According to the report, worldwide revenue from WLAN switch and controller products declined 4 percent from the previous quarter, but is expected to grow at a strong 23 percent compound annual growth rate through 2011. At the same time, Infonetics reports, worldwide enterprise single mode WiFi phone revenue dropped 13 percent from the fourth quarter of 2007 to last, “largely due to a decreased shipment volume from previous market leader Cisco.”
 
Michael Dinan is a TMCNet Editor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
 
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users. Today’s featured white paper is Fixed Service Strategies for Mobile Network Operators, brought to you by Comverse (News - Alert).





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