Worldwide wireless LAN hardware revenue hit $481.9 million in 1Q03, and is expected to reach $2.01 billion in CY03, according to Infonetics Research's quarterly worldwide market share and forecast service, Wireless LAN Hardware.
Access point revenue hit $304.7 million in 1Q03, a rise of 12% from 4Q02. Access points based on the 802.11g draft standard accounted for $33.5 million in revenue in their first full quarter of shipping, an immediate 11% share of access point revenue, which is forecast to rise to 28% of total access point revenue by the end of 2003.
"There have been several consecutive quarters of WLAN growth, and within that the proportion of revenue derived from enterprises is steadily growing," said Infonetics Research's Richard Webb, lead analyst of the report. "The exciting news is that 1Q03 saw a great deal of activity from vendors launching WLAN switching and security, as well as wireless IP telephony solutions that could drive a much steeper adoption curve within the enterprise mainstream. These products will take a quarter or so to gain traction, but will make 2004 a big year for wireless LAN." Infonetics just launched a new study on enterprise WLAN adoption to help vendors take advantage of this opportunity.
1Q03 Market Highlights
Cisco and Linksys continue to lead in worldwide wireless LAN hardware revenue market share (Cisco is in the process of acquiring Linksys), having increased the gap between themselves and the chasing pack of Buffalo, NETGEAR, and D-Link
Access points account for 63% of wireless LAN hardware revenue, and NICs account for 37%; these proportions will remain stable through 4Q03, but the proportion of access point revenue will increase through CY06, as NIC prices are falling rapidly
Consumers make up 48% of wireless LAN hardware revenue, enterprises 43%, and service providers 9%; through 2003, the enterprise and service provider percentages will rise as penetration increases
Several vendors have introduced 802.11g products that will likely have a dramatic market impact in 2003, and many vendors are already having success with 802.11a products
North America accounts for 58% of wireless LAN hardware revenue, a number that holds fairly steady through CY03; EMEA is next at 23%, then Asia/Pacific at 16%, and CALA at 3%
Wireless LAN Hardware tracks WLAN access points in three function-based categories (standalone, wireless broadband gateways, bridges), and network integration cards (NICs) in three categories (USB, PCI, PCMCIA cards). Access points and NICs are broken out by 802.11a vs. 802.11b vs 802.11g, and the wireless LAN hardware revenue total is broken out by enterprise vs. consumers vs. service providers.
Forecasts are updated quarterly and cover all regions (worldwide, North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific, and CALA). Companies tracked in this service include 3Com, Actiontec, Avaya, Buffalo Technology, Cisco, D-Link, Enterasys, HP, Intel, Linksys, NetGear, Nokia, Proxim, SMC, Symbol, US Robotics, ZyXEL, and others.
