Attractive cost of 802.11b Drove Wi-Fi shipments in 2002 - Market Intelligence - wireless fidelity local area networks industry figures - Brief Article

Mobile Internet, The, March, 2003

The year 2002 proved to be a stellar year for Wireless LAN volume growth, driven by the increasingly cheap and reliable 802.llb technology, according to In-Stat/MDR The high-tech market research firm reports that business Wi-Fi hardware shipments rose 65% annually in 2002, to 11.6 million units and home shipments increased by a very healthy 160%, to 6.8 million units. However, fast and furiously falling prices for 802.11b equipment are expected to cause total market revenues to grow by only 23%, from 1.8 billion in 2001 to $2.2 billion in 2002.

In-Stat/MDR also found that

- Many new types of hardware shipped in 2002: 802.11a NICs and APs; dual-mode 2.4/5 GHz capable APs; dual-mode 2.4/5 GHzNICs; and in late 2002, the first trickle of pre-standard 802.11g products powered by Broadcom silicon.

- Although verticals continued to sustain the bulk of high-end business purchases, low-end infrastructure equipment flowed into an increasing number of small businesses, as well as into remote offices and small departments of large and medium businesses.

- The increasing rate of embedded 802.11b into laptops greatly increased, from 2 percent of NIC units shipped to businesses in 2001, to an expected 14 percent of total business client shipments in 2002.

- Brisk retail and e-tail sales of low-end router/AP devices, along with NICs, drove the small business and home/SOHO worldwide market growth. Retail outlets and Websites aggressively provided rebates on Wi-Fi equipment

The report, It's Cheap and It Works: Wi-Fi Brings Wireless Networking to the Mosses includes five-year forecasts of the worldwide total Wireless LAN(WLAN) equipment market, including Wi-Fi equipment, i.e. 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g and dual band 2.4/5GHz products. Business and home/SOHO (small office, home office) Wi-Fi market forecasts are included, by technology and equipment type.