Infonetics Research: 802.11n products on the rise; Polycom steals #1 spot from Cisco in WiFi phone share

Market Wire, June, 2008

Communications market research firm Infonetics Research reports that the wireless LAN infrastructure market, which includes independent and dependent access points and WLAN switches and controllers, sequentially increased in revenue but decreased in units shipped in 1Q08, evidence that higher-priced 802.11n products are now shipping in increasing volume.

Infonetics' report, Wireless LAN Equipment and Phones , shows that worldwide WLAN equipment revenue hit $499 million in 1Q08, up 1% from the previous quarter, marginally beating the previous all-time high of 3Q07.

"802.11n products are now making a more marked impact on the wireless market overall, with vendors reporting an acceleration in 802.11n shipments in 1Q08," said Richard Webb , directing analyst for wireless and mobile devices at Infonetics Research. "It looks like enterprise WiFi products will migrate from 802.11g to 802.11n as rapidly as 802.11b products migrated to 802.11g several years ago. Yes, enterprises would like to see a return on their 802.11g investments before making significant upgrades, but the speed benefits of 802.11n are undeniable, with adoption being driven by the increase in new notebooks and PDAs with embedded 802.11n."

Other highlights from the report:

--  Cisco continues to dominate the worldwide WLAN equipment market,
    holding the #1 position in enterprise and service provider segments
--  The more closely fought contest is for positions #2 to #4, which will
    be contested by 3Com, Aruba, HP, Motorola and Trapeze -- a battle of WLAN
    specialists versus integrated enterprise vendors
--  Worldwide revenue from WLAN switch and controller products declined 4%
    from the previous quarter, but is expected to grow at a strong 23% compound
    annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2007 to 2011
--  Worldwide enterprise single mode WiFi phone revenue dropped 13% in
    1Q08 from 4Q07, largely due to a decreased shipment volume from previous
    market leader Cisco
--  Polycom claims the lead position in the worldwide WiFi phone revenue,
    knocking Cisco into 2nd place for 1Q08
    

Infonetics' report tracks WLAN independent access points split by enterprise and service provider, dependent access points, WLAN switches and controllers, and enterprise single-mode WiFi phones. WLAN hardware revenue is broken out by enterprise and service provider customers. Forecasts and market share are updated quarterly.

Companies tracked include 3Com, Aerohive Networks, Aruba Networks, Belden, Browan, Cisco, Colubris, D-Link, Extreme Networks, Gemtek, HTC, Meru Networks, Motorola, NETGEAR, Polycom, ProCurve, Proxim, Siemens SHC, SMC Networks, Trapeze Networks, Vocera, and others.

Download report highlights by logging in to Infonetics' access portal from www.infonetics.com (see the Wireless and FMC area). For sales, contact Larry Howard, vice president, at larry@infonetics.com or 1 (408) 583-3335.

Infonetics Research ( www.infonetics.com ) is an international communications market research firm. Tracking emerging markets since 1990, Infonetics covers a broad range of service provider, product manufacturer, and enterprise and SMB markets, including network security, enterprise voice, unified communications, broadband networks, IPTV, IP video, mobile TV, optical networks, metro Ethernet, carrier routing and switching, wireless , WiFi , mobile network infrastructure, FMC, VoIP, IMS, policy management, subscriber management, service management, carrier capex and opex, and more. Services include quarterly market share and forecasting, end-user survey research, service provider survey research, service provider capex analysis, and custom research and consulting.

Press Contact Richard Webb Directing Analyst, WiMAX, WiFi & Mobile Devices Infonetics Research 1 (408) 583-3369 or 44 (0) 1689-851-618 Email Contact