Double-digit growth characterizes Wireless LAN (WLAN) market in 4Q and full-year 2018, despite a soft China, according to a new report from Dell'Oro Group. China sees a comeback in 4Q 2018, particularly Huawei.
"The growth of the WLAN market in 4Q and full-year 2018 came primarily from a surge in North America as users refreshed networks with 802.11ac Wave2 products, and opted for extra applications such as higher levels of security, location finding, and cloud-managed," said Ritesh Patel, WLAN analyst at Dell'Oro Group. "We predict 2019 sales to accelerate as WiFi 6 shifts from an early shipment phase to widespread availability, and vendors bring more applications to market targeted at specific verticals," added Patel.
Other findings in the report include:
- Huawei reported a seasonally strong 4Q, a remarkable comeback after its low in 1H 2018 when Chinese Service Providers stopped deploying WLAN in mobile environments.
- We predict the WLAN market to enter a period when revenue growth out paces unit growth as users opt for higher-featured, higher-priced WiFi 6 products, and applications deployed via cloud-managed license subscriptions.
- During 2018, cloud managed subscription license revenue eclipsed hardware revenue.
- SOHO Wireless Router sales rose 20% during 2018, driven by Whole Home Mesh.
