The enterprise-class wireless LAN (WLAN) market suffered relatively small market declines during the current recession and is poised to gain momentum throughout the year, growing 23% from $1.7bn in 2009 to a robust $2.1bn in 2010, according to a new research by IDC.
The market research firm said recovery from short-term softness in retail, manufacturing, and services verticals, combined with the continued strength in education, healthcare, and government, will help drive WLAN growth in 2010 – as enterprises continue to embrace wireless to increase efficiency and user productivity.
The study said that WLAN connectivity has become essential-to-have within the enterprise and the channel for WLANs continues to be increasingly important as the market goes global. The momentum continues to build for network managers to move forward with network expansions, upgrades and greenfield rollouts with the uncertainties around 802.11n and Power over Ethernet.
IDC’s ‘Worldwide Enterprise Wireless LAN Equipment 2010-2014 Forecast’ report showed that growth in 802.11n deployments is accelerating in 2010, with 57.5% of all dependent access points being ‘n’ based. The rising momentum of WLAN market is set to dampen demand for ethernet switch ports in 2010.
Rohit Mehra, director of enterprise communications infrastructure at IDC, said:"Unlike other markets that were ravaged by the recession, economic uncertainty and the structural causes of the downturn did not change the fundamental drivers for the growth of wireless in the enterprise. New applications, new devices, and new verticals are all contributing to the organic growth of Wi-Fi across all regions.
"More and more customers are demanding resilient, intelligent, scalable, and adaptive wireless network infrastructures. They are gearing up for widespread deployments across the board — not just in the carpeted areas of enterprise and in the education market segment, but in widespread applications across major verticals,"
