Infonetics Research has released excerpts from its 2nd quarter 2012 (2Q12) Wireless LAN Equipment and WiFi Phones vendor market share and forecast report, which tracks sales and revenues for 802.11 a/b/g, 802.11n, and 802.11ac access points (APs), wireless LAN (WLAN) controllers, and WiFi phones for the enterprise.
“Wireless LAN has had a very good run over the last couple of years, even outperforming wired LAN, and the WLAN market is now approaching the $1-billion-per-quarter mark,” comments Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.
The new report finds that global wireless LAN equipment and WiFi phone sales grew 16% sequentially in 2Q12, to $993 million, driven by strong demand in North America and the education and retail verticals. Additionally, WLAN equipment revenue in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) is shown to have risen by more than 1/3 year-over-year.
Additionally, the study finds that revenue for outdoor access points rose 45% from the year-ago 2nd quarter due to increasing deployments of WiFi by service providers. Cisco, the perennial leader in the wireless LAN equipment market, is said to have gained about 4 market share points year-over-year in 2Q12; Aruba again took the #2 spot; HP leapfrogged Motorola to take 3rd. The report also notes that Vocera widened its lead over Polycom and Cisco in the race for enterprise WiFi phone market share in 2Q12.
“The world is going wireless, and users expect fast, always-on connectivity no matter where they are," adds Infonetics' Machowinski. "Enterprises need to keep pace with ever-increasing bandwidth demands, and next-gen WLAN gear based on fast 802.11n and, soon, 802.11ac technologies gives them a reason to upgrade.”
More information about the report can be found here.
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