Worldwide wireless LAN hardware revenue reached $719.5 million in 2Q04, up 3% from 1Q04, and will grow 9% to $786.2 million by 2Q05, according to Infonetics Research’s quarterly market share service, Wireless LAN APs, Switches, and NICs.
Worldwide unit growth continues at a solid pace, up 17% from 1Q04 to 7.9 million, as the key driver for WLAN products, data mobility, remains strong across all segments. Fierce vendor competition continues to erode ASPs, resulting in considerably faster unit shipment growth than revenue growth: Units will grow 131% and revenue 39% between 2003 and 2007.
Wireless LAN adoption will continue apace throughout most regions through 2007, with enterprise and public hotspot segments fulfilling their growth potential, and the already explosive consumer segment continuing its dramatic growth.
“Wireless LAN switches saw port growth of 49% to 50,000 and revenue growth of 38% to $39 million between the first and second quarters, due in part to the recent market entrance of several vendors,” said Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics and author of the report. “This is a young market segment, but one we believe has strong potential. We forecast healthy double- digit quarterly port and revenue growth for wireless LAN switches throughout 2004, and high double-digit annual port and revenue growth through 2007.”
2Q04 Report Highlights
— Cisco moves up to number-one worldwide revenue market share leader following its strongest ever quarter for WLAN sales, which were the highest of any vendor since Infonetics began tracking the WLAN hardware market in 2002
— Linksys drops to second place after leading in revenue market share since 4Q03 (Linksys was acquired by Cisco in March 2003, but is still reporting numbers separately)
— NETGEAR maintains third position in worldwide revenue market share
— Access points account for about two-thirds of WLAN hardware revenue, NICs for close to a quarter, and WLAN switch and aggregation products and security gateways make up the balance; the latter two will gain greater market traction over the next few years
— SOHOs/consumers continue to make up the majority of WLAN hardware revenue but service providers/enterprises increased in 2Q04, closing the gap between the two groups
— North America accounts for almost half of all WLAN hardware revenue, EMEA accounts for about a quarter, followed closely by Asia Pacific
Wireless LAN Hardware tracks access points (standalone, wireless broadband gateways, WLAN bridges), WLAN switches, non port-based WLAN aggregation devices, security gateways, NICs, and embedded NICs. Standalone access points, indoor bridges, and the wireless LAN hardware revenue total are broken out by SOHO/consumer vs. service provider/enterprise.
Forecasts and market share are updated quarterly and cover all regions (worldwide, North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, CALA). Companies tracked include 2Wire, 3Com, Airespace, Ambit, Aruba Networks, Avaya, Belkin, Bluesocket, Buffalo Technology, Cisco, Colubris, D-Link, Ericsson, Foundry, Gemtek Systems, HP, Intel, Linksys, Meru Networks, Motorola, NETGEAR, Nokia, Nortel Networks
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