21st December 2009 - WLAN Market on the rebound

WLAN Market on the rebound

The wireless LAN industry nearly returned to its pre-recession health in the third quarter and is likely to achieve record revenue when the current quarter has been tallied, according research company Dell'Oro Group.

Worldwide revenue for wireless LAN equipment, not counting client devices, recovered to US$1.1 billion in the third quarter of this year, Dell'Oro said. That was up about 12 percent from the second quarter -- 20 percent for enterprise equipment alone -- and nearly matched the $1.14 billion of the previous year's third quarter, according to analyst Loren Shalinsky.

The WLAN business was hurt less than some others in the recession that hit hard last September, but it sent sales lower in the first and second quarters of 2009, Shalinsky said. Before the downturn took hold, revenue had hit a record in the fourth quarter of last year, partly because of projects that had been initiated before the economy fizzled. Now the industry is on track to break that record, he said.

Stimulus money granted by the U.S. government to help the economy back to health appears to have helped the rebound, Shalinsky said. Vendors cited stimulus funds as a driver for deals, and the government, health care and education sectors, all of which benefited from the stimulus, led the rise in sales, he said.

However, the growth of IEEE 802.11n also helped, according to Dell'Oro. The 11n standard, which boosted WLAN speed and range from the earlier a, b and g specifications, wasn't formally approved until September 2009. But products based on a draft of the standard made up about 20 percent of WLAN units sold at the beginning of this year and now total more than 30 percent, Shalinsky said. Some enterprises hold off on buying gear until it has been standardized.

Reported in NetworkWorld 21st December 2009.
Nick Stone, Sales Director at Airetrak, said: ‘The recent ramp-up in wireless LAN sales is great news for the RTLS market. As confidence returns to the purchasers of wireless LAN we will see more organisations looking at value added applications such as Wi-Fi tracking to provide ROI on their wireless investment.”