The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments increased 10.8 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2013 (2Q13).
According to research firm IDC, the enterprise segment continued to grow at a very healthy rate and increased 14.8 percent over the same period last year.
While the pace of the enterprise WLAN market growth is starting to slow from the 20 percent-plus year-over-year increases witnessed in the last several years, the enterprise WLAN market continues to be one of the fastest growing networking markets out there.
The consumer WLAN market also performed well in 2Q13 and increased 6.5 percent year-over-year, which was on par with the consumer WLAN results in 1Q13.
“Across all verticals and geographies, enterprise IT continues to see an explosion of mobility applications running on more devices than ever, resulting in new investments in WLAN infrastructure,” said Rohit Mehra, vice president for network infrastructure at IDC.
“While growth slowed slightly this quarter compared to previous quarters, the growing mobility needs of education, retail, healthcare, and other distributed enterprise segments will continue to fuel substantial growth in the overall enterprise WLAN market.”
From a geographic perspective, the enterprise WLAN market performed especially well in Latin America with its 38.8 percent year-over-year growth and in Asia-Pacific where it increased 24.0 percent year-over-year in 2Q13.
North America followed with a 14.9 percent year-over-year increase. Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) grew 6.4 percent year-over-year in 2Q13, weaker than the other major regions but still positive and an improvement as macroeconomic conditions continue to gradually improve.
“Although regional and country-level WLAN growth trends varied widely in 2Q13, the worldwide outlook for the enterprise, service provider, and consumer segments remains optimistic due to highly anticipated network upgrade cycles,” said Petr Jirovsky, senior research analyst at IDC.
Key enterprise WLAN vendor updates
? Cisco’s 2Q13 worldwide enterprise WLAN revenue grew 16.7 percent year-over-year, slightly above the overall market. Cisco?s 2Q13 enterprise WLAN revenue reached a record $581 million in the quarter. The North American market was especially strong for Cisco this quarter and now accounts for 58.4 percent of worldwide revenue, up from 48.8 percent in 1Q13. Cisco’s worldwide market share stands at 53.7 percent in 2Q13, its highest share since 4Q10.
? Aruba (excluding its OEM business) grew its enterprise revenue 13.6 percent year-over-year in the second quarter, which was, in essence, on par with the overall market and an improvement over the 8.5 percent year-over-year increase Aruba experienced in 1Q13. Aruba now holds 11 percent of the enterprise WLAN market.
? HP’s overall enterprise WLAN revenue increased 17.7 percent year-over-year in 2Q13 and reached $65.7 million in 2Q13. This was a noticeable improvement in annual growth when compared to HP’s results for the last few quarters. As a result, HP’s market share increased to 6.0 percent of the market in 2Q13, up from 5.4 percent in 1Q13.
? Ruckus grew a solid 37.3 percent year-over-year in 2Q13 and now accounts for 5.5 percent of the overall market.
