WLAN equipment sales totaled USD 1.4 billion globally in Q3 2016, up by over 8 percent year-on-year due to strong growth in access point shipments, which are up 21 percent year-on-year, according to a report by IHS.
A total of 6 million access points shipped in Q3, including over 500,000 802.11ac wave 2 units. Wave 2 accounted for 10 percent of all units in Q3, nearly double Q2’s rate. Despite strong adoption of 802.11ac and wave 2 products, average selling prices have not increased and are in fact down more than 10 percent year-over-year. Demand for WLAN is strong, but monetising that demand has been a challenge for the last two years as organisations chose lower-cost approaches. Even so, the outlook for the WLAN market remains bright, as infrastructure investments over the long term will shift to WLAN equipment to support the rapid rise of wireless devices, both personal and for the Internet of Things (IoT), and also requirements for mobility.
Asia Pacific was the fastest-growing region for WLAN in 2015, and that trend continues in 2016. Fiscal stimulus in China has helped drive demand. In North America, now that the new FCC E-Rate programme is up and running, WLAN sales to K-12 customers have recovered and the market has steadied. Still, growth is relatively small.
For Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), researchers expect lower growth in 2017 due to Brexit, followed by a resurgence in 2018 that will continue through 2020. Cisco held first place for WLAN equipment revenue in Q3, HPE (Aruba) was a solid number two and Brocade (Ruckus) rounded out the top three. But the top growth performers (versus a year ago) were Huawei and Ubiquiti.
Huawei has grown into major WLAN player, tripling revenue year-over-year, thanks to steady demand in its core market of China and expansion in Europe. Ubiquiti is up 53 percent in Q3 from a year ago due to portfolio updates.
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