The latest release of the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker reports that the enterprise segment of the worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market saw revenues grow 7.6% year over year in 2023 to $10.8 billion, however, in the fourth quarter, enterprise customers deployed a record amount of product inventory, leading to a sharp decline of 25.5% compared to Q4 2022.
"2023 was a dynamic year in the enterprise WLAN market, driven by myriad factors including the effects of the supply chain disruptions, product backlogs, and the shipping of product inventory, combined with a fragile macroeconomic environment," said Brandon Butler, research manager, Enterprise Networks. "Nonetheless, WLAN remains a critically important technology for organizations across the globe as they build out a future connectedness strategy."
Some highlights from IDC:
Adoption of Wi-Fi 6E:
- * Continued growth in 4Q23, expanding Wi-Fi use to the 6 GHz spectrum.
- * In the enterprise sector, Wi-Fi 6E revenues grew 11.7% from Q3 to Q4 2023, representing 22.6% of dependent AP quarterly revenues and 10% of unit shipments.
- * Wi-Fi 6 accounted for the majority of dependent AP revenues (72.8%) and unit shipments (77.5%), with Wi-Fi 5 making up the remainder.
Consumer WLAN Market in 2023:
- Declined 12.8% year over year for the full year.
- Declined 14.5% in 4Q23.
- Wi-Fi 6 constituted 64.1% of consumer market revenues; Wi-Fi 5 accounted for 26.5%.
- Wi-Fi 6E adoption was low in the consumer segment, at 6.7% of revenues in 4Q23.
Enterprise WLAN Market by Region:
- United States: Increased 20.6% year over year for 2023 but declined 25.9% in 4Q23.
- Canada: Rose 14.5% for the full year but fell 32.3% in the fourth quarter.
- People's Republic of China: Declined 17.5% for the full year and 18.0% in 4Q23.
- Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan & China): Declined 16.9% in the quarter but rose 6.2% for the full year.
- Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA): Dropped 32.1% in the quarter but increased 1.6% for the full year.
- Latin America: Dropped 15.1% in 4Q23 but increased 25.1% for the full year.
Company Highlights
- Cisco's enterprise WLAN revenues declined 40.3% year over year in 4Q23, but rose 11.2% for the full year to $4.6 billion. The company's market share stood at 42.6% for the full year.
- HPE Aruba Networking revenues declined 21.6% year over year in 4Q23 and rose 7.0% for the full year, giving the company market share of 14.6% for 2023.
- Huawei enterprise WLAN revenues declined 0.4% in 4Q23, but rose 13.8% for the full year, giving the company market share of 8.0% for calendar year 2023.
- Ubiquiti enterprise WLAN revenues declined 11.3% in 4Q23 and declined 2.6% for the full year, giving the company market share of 6.1% in 2023.
- CommScope enterprise WLAN revenues declined 33.1% in 4Q23, but rose 23.3% for the full year, giving the company market share of 4.4% in 2023.
- Juniper Networks enterprise WLAN revenues increased 13.2% year over year in 4Q23 and rose 26.6% for the full year, giving the company market was of 4.1% for the full year.
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