The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments increased 7.0 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14).
According to research firm IDC, the enterprise segment continued to grow at a steady rate and increased another 7.4 percent over the same period last year.
After an uptick in year-over-year growth in 3Q14 (9.4 percent), the enterprise WLAN market growth rate resumed a pattern of incremental growth rate decreases.
For the full year 2014, the enterprise WLAN market grew 8.5 percent year-over-year, significantly lower than the gains seen in the last few years.
The 802.11ac standard continues to see adoption at a breakneck pace in the enterprise segment. After six full quarters of product availability, the 802.11ac standard already accounts for just over 30 percent of dependent access point shipments and 44 percent of dependent access point revenues, representing a noticeably faster adoption rate than the 802.11a/b/g to 802.11n transition several years ago.
Some of the reasons behind this trend include increasingly complete indoor and outdoor 802.11ac portfolios, competitive pricing relative to 802.11n access points, and the higher throughput of 802.11ac that helps meet the demands of what IDC calls the 3rd Platform of IT, built on cloud, mobility, big data, and social business technologies.
The consumer WLAN market increased 6.5 percent year-over-year in 4Q14. This represents a slight increase from the 5.6 percent year-over-year growth seen in 3Q14.
The ongoing transition from the older 802.11n standard to the newer and faster 802.11ac standard continues to drive growth across all geographies.
Worldwide consumer 802.11ac WLAN revenues grew 155.6 percent year-over-year, with shipments increasing 206.6 percent.
Consumer 802.11ac equipment revenues grew at 100 percent or more in most regions, performing especially well in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America regions, with 479.2 percent and 344.2 percent year-over-year growth respectively.
“Where appropriate, enterprises worldwide are seeking to move mission-critical functions from the wired network to wireless,” said Rohit Mehra, vice president for network infrastructure at IDC.
“These organizations are migrating to 802.11ac in order to experience wire-like speeds that enable a more nimble, mobile enterprise. As the 802.11ac ecosystem grows even more robust, expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.”
From a geographic perspective, the enterprise WLAN market once again performed especially well in Latin America with 14.2 percent year-over-year growth in 4Q14.
The EMEA region notched its third consecutive quarter of solid growth, increasing 9.4 percent year-over-year. North America saw a second consecutive quarter of strong growth, increasing 9.3 percent in 4Q14.
The Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) (APeJ) enterprise WLAN market increased 3.0 percent on an annual basis in 4Q14. On the other hand, the enterprise WLAN market experienced weakness in Japan, which declined -16.6 percent in 4Q14.
“With the exception of Japan, the fourth quarter saw even growth across the regions compared to previous quarters. As 802.11ac adoption rises, especially with wave 2 on the horizon, the WLAN market should see sustained and steady growth across the regions over the next few years,” said Petr Jirovsky, research manager at IDC.
Key enterprise WLAN vendor highlights
Cisco‘s 4Q14 worldwide enterprise WLAN revenue was in sync with the overall market, growing 7.5 percent year-over-year and 2.1 percent quarter over quarter. Cisco’s worldwide market share held relatively steady at 48.4 percent in 4Q14, up from the 48.3 percent seen in both 3Q14 and 4Q13. IDC believes that growth in the Meraki cloud-managed WLAN portfolio will remain a key driver of continued growth.
Aruba (excluding its OEM business) had a very strong quarter in 4Q14 and increased 29.0 percent year-over-year and 4.5 percent sequentially. Burgeoning demand for both 802.11ac and Aruba Instant access points continues to drive positive results for Aruba. Aruba’s market share increased to 11.8 percent, up slightly from 11.5 percent in 3Q14 and from the 9.8 percent market share Aruba held in 4Q13.
Ruckus had a fairly strong quarter, outperforming the overall enterprise WLAN market after growing 15.7 percent year-over-year and 0.5 percent quarter over quarter in 4Q14. Ruckus currently accounts for 6.2 percent of the overall market, up from 5.7 percent in 4Q13.
HP Networking continues to struggle as it declined -15.1 percent year-over-year and 7.6 percent sequentially. As a result, HP’s market share stands at 4.3 percent compared to 5.4 percent for 4Q13.
