The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments increased 11.5 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13).
According to research firm IDC, the enterprise segment continued to grow at a very healthy rate and increased 11.7 percent over the same period in 2012.
While the pace of the enterprise WLAN market growth is starting to moderate from the 20 percent-plus year-over-year increases seen in the past several quarters, the enterprise WLAN market continues to be one of the fastest growing networking market segments.
The consumer WLAN market also had an excellent quarter in 4Q13 and grew 11.2 percent year-over-year. The growth in the consumer WLAN space appears to be accelerating due to strong growth in the emerging markets and market transition from the older 802.11n standard to the newer and faster 802.11ac standard.
For the full year 2013, the enterprise WLAN market increased 15.0 percent year-over-year and the consumer WLAN market jumped 11.0 percent year-over-year.
“Across all geographies and in most of the key verticals, the expansion of mobility applications for enterprise IT continues to drive new investments in WLAN infrastructure,” said Rohit Mehra, vice president for network infrastructure at IDC.
“While the growth rate has stabilized in recent quarters, new mobility applications, particularly for the education, retail, and healthcare verticals, along with expanded deployment options and the continued emergence of 802.11ac will lead to continued growth in the enterprise WLAN market.”
From a geographic perspective, the enterprise WLAN market performed especially well in Latin America with its 37.2 percent year-over-year growth in 4Q13.
Asia-Pacific increased 22.7 percent year-over-year and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region increased 20.1 percent in 4Q13. On the other hand, North America was relatively weak this quarter and was up just 0.7 percent year-over-year.
“Although revenues were flat in many mature economies in the fourth quarter, growth in enterprise WLAN deployments will remain strong in emerging markets and will regain momentum in developed markets in 2014,” said Petr Jirovsky, research manager at IDC.
Key enterprise WLAN vendor updates
? Cisco’s 4Q13 worldwide enterprise WLAN revenue grew 6.1 percent year-over-year and declined -2.5 percent on a sequential basis over the particularly strong 3Q13. Cisco was particularly impacted by the relative weakness in North America where revenue was down -11.4 percent quarter over quarter and -0.7 percent year-over-year. Cisco’s worldwide market share stands at 48.4 percent in 4Q13, down from 52.2 percent in 3Q13 and 51.0 percent in 4Q12. Still, Cisco’s full year 2013 results were solid as it grew 15.1 percent year-over-year, marginally exceeding the 15.0 percent year-over-year growth of the total market.
? Aruba (excluding its OEM business) rebounded from a weaker 3Q13 quarter and grew 7.9 percent sequentially, which was good for a 3.5 percent year-over-year increase in 4Q13. Aruba?s full year 2013 annual growth reached 5.1 percent and its market share now stands at 9.8 percent of the enterprise WLAN market, up from the 9.5 percent in 3Q13.
? Ruckus grew a solid 20.8 percent year-over-year in 4Q13 and now accounts for 5.7 percent of the overall market.
? HP 4Q13 revenue increased 18.1 percent year-over-year but declined -2.4 percent sequentially. HP’s full year 2013 enterprise WLAN growth was 13.1 percent.
