The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments increased 7.4% year over year in the third quarter of 2014 (3Q14), according to the preliminary results published in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly WLAN Tracker.
"WLAN is proving to be an increasingly mission-critical platform in the enterprise," said Rohit Mehra, Vice President, Network Infrastructure, at IDC. "Not only are organizations experiencing transformed internal business processes through WLAN-enabled cloud and multimedia applications, but public-facing enterprises are realizing opportunities to improve customer engagement through the wireless network. This is leading to a robust stream of network upgrades and greenfield deployments, increasingly built upon the 802.11ac standard. These trends will continue to play out in the foreseeable future."
Some highlights:
- 802.11ac already accounts for 26.5% of dependent access point shipments and 39% of revenues.
- The consumer WLAN market increased 4.8% year over year in 3Q14. This was noticeably lower than the 10.9% year-over-year growth seen in 2Q14.
- The enterprise WLAN market once again performed especially well in Latin America with its 27.3% year-over-year growth in 3Q14. The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region also enjoyed its second consecutive quarter of solid growth, growing 15.0% year over year. North America, rebounding from a decline in 2Q14, grew 7.5% year over year in 3Q14. The enterprise WLAN market in the Asia/Pacific region grew more modestly at 4.5% year over year.
- Cisco's 3Q14 worldwide enterprise WLAN revenue increased 2.6% year over year and 7.3% quarter over quarter. Cisco's worldwide market share increased to 48.3% in 3Q14 from 46.8% in 2Q14, stemming two consecutive quarters of declining market share, but still down from the 51.6% market share held in 3Q13.
- Aruba (excluding its OEM business) had a very strong quarter in 3Q14 and increased 33.4% year over year and 1.4% sequentially on strength across its product portfolio, including the 802.11ac and Aruba Instant access points. As a result, Aruba's market share increased to 11.5% of the enterprise WLAN market, up from the 9.4% in 3Q13.
- Ruckus again outperformed the overall enterprise WLAN market after growing 22.6% year over year and 4.5% quarter over quarter in 3Q14. Ruckus now accounts for 6.3% of the overall market, up from 5.6% in 3Q13.
