Meraki Sees Surge in Wi-Fi Devices in Use in North America

Meraki reported a significant increase in the number of wireless-capable devices in use in North America, especially the number of Apple devices and handhelds being used.


Meraki, which enterprise-class wireless networks using cloud-based technology, conducted a census that compared activity seen by a single set of randomly selected Meraki wireless access points in North America in 2008 and 2009 in order to understand macro-level traffic and end-user device trends.


The number of client devices, such as laptops and handheld devices, observed by the same set of Meraki access points grew dramatically by 41% from 149,687 devices in 2008 to 211,190 in 2009. The number of Apple devices observed, including laptops, iPhones and iPods, grew by an impressive 221%. Apple devices now represent 32% of all the devices seen by this set of Meraki networks in North America, compared to just 14% in 2008.


The number of WiFi compatible handheld devices also grew significantly. The number of Research In Motion (RIM) devices observed in North America grew by 419% from 2008 to 2009, and Nokia devices grew by 114%. In 2008, RIM devices represented just 2% of all devices observed, but grew dramatically to 8% for 2009. In 2008 and 2009, Nokia represented 1% and 2% of all devices, respectively.


Also a bold shift, the number of Intel client devices grew only slightly by 11%, from 35,471 in 2008 to 39,209 in 2009. Intel actually fell as a percent of all devices seen, from 24% in 2008 to 19% in 2009.


"It's unambiguous that more people are using more devices to access the Internet via WiFi than ever before," said Sanjit Biswas, CEO and co-founder of Meraki. "But the trends identified by the Meraki Wireless Census also reveal a lot about the devices people prefer and are gravitating towards. The growth in devices overall is impressive, but the growth for Apple, Nokia and RIM devices is stunning. It paints a vivid picture about how people now access the Internet, and the trends we can expect for years to come."http://www.meraki.com