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October 18, 2012

Wi-Fi Continues to Grow Globally, More Demand Seen for Equipment

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor

Wi-Fi continues to be popular with users in many parts of the world – and a recent study shows that the Wi-Fi equipment market increased by 16.5 percent.

The ABI Research study also showed that 802.11N (Dual band) was the preferred wireless protocol during the first six months of this year.



Cisco (News - Alert) is top-ranked enterprise Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) equipment maker. It has 36 percent of market share, globally. Next are ZTE and Aruba.


Image via Shutterstock

Cisco is dominant in the North American and European markets, the study said. On the other hand, Cisco is “increasingly losing ground from close competition from ZTE (News - Alert) in APAC, Latin America, and MEA [regions].”

Aruba came in third edging out HP Procurve “with a stronger presence in North America and Europe with little or no presence in Asia and Latin American markets,” the study adds.

“Increasing bandwidth requirement continues to drive 802.11n (Dualband) wireless protocol while the market slowly starts to adopt its successor and more advanced 802.11ac protocol in the enterprise WLAN market,” Adarsh Krishnan, ABI Research (News - Alert) senior analyst, TV, video and broadband, added.

In the Consumer/SOHO WLAN sector, TP-LINK is first in the equipment market, with much of the APAC market. TP-LINK “is becoming a growing presence in other regions,” the study added. Netgear (News - Alert) is in second place and has a “strong” market share in North America and Europe, with D-Link next. In addition, TP-LINK dominates the APAC region. 

ZTE and Technicolor (News - Alert) are “rapidly increasing” market shares in Latin America. ZTE continues to lose its market share to TP-Link and Technicolor in the region.

The study also looked at the residential gateway equipment market. “Dual and triple play services from broadband Internet service providers continue to drive the residential gateway equipment market where Netgear continues to be the market leader worldwide,” ABI Research TV, video and broadband practice director, Sam Rosen added in the statement.

In related news, a recent study from Strategy Analytics shows that a quarter of households worldwide installed Wi-Fi networks. In addition, the total global number of Wi-Fi households will reach nearly 800 million in 2016, a penetration rate of 42 percent.

It was also predicted by the study that more than 110 million Wi-Fi connections will be added in Chinese homes over the next five years.

In reviewing the data, Strategy Analytics analyst Kantideep Thota explained that, “As most broadband growth will come from Asia Pacific, the bulk of Wi-Fi household growth will also will take place in China, India and other emerging Asia Pacific countries. China alone will account for 31 percent of total Wi-Fi household growth over the next five years.”




Edited by Brooke Neuman
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