Enterprise LAN Takeup Pushes 1Q12 Gear Revenues

During the first three months of 2012, overall wireless LAN (WLAN) revenues grew 18 percent compared with the same period last year, driven in part by a 29-percent year-over-year increase in the enterprise WLAN segment.

Data from Dell’Oro Group says two vendors — Ruckus Wireless and Netgear — posted “record” WLAN revenues in the first quarter. In addition, Cisco Systems gained 1.1 points of share in the higher-priced enterprise segment. Also in the enterprise market, Ruckus Wireless gained 0.7 points of revenue share; Motorola Solutions gained 0.3 points; and Aruba Networks gained 0.2 points.

Also in the first quarter, Cisco maintained the majority revenue market share in the enterprise WLAN market, followed by Aruba and Hewlett Packard. In the SOHO market, Netgear retained the Number One revenue rank, followed by Cisco and D-Link.

“We are entering an exciting era in the WLAN industry with delivery of higher-speed 802.11ac devices shipping imminently and with service providers scrambling to deploy Wi-Fi devices to satisfy mobile users,” notes Chris DePuy, WLAN analyst at Dell’Oro Group. “When you add these two new drivers on top of already powerful trends, we are confident that the industry will continue to grow in the double digits annual percentage rate for years.”