11n shores up WLAN market

The unyielding economic conditions bit into global wireless LAN (WLAN) revenue in 2008’s closing quarter, but uptake of draft 802.11n equipment continued to snowball, research claims.

The 4Q08 WLAN Market Share Report from In-Stat found worldwide revenue for the last three months of 2008 was $1.16bn (£880m). This represents a 2.4 per cent year-on-year decline and a 5.2 per cent drop-off from the preceding quarter.

Despite this, revenue from and shipments of draft 11n products in the quarter were both up more than 80 per cent. In the consumer and SME space, vendors D-Link, Netgear, Buffalo and 3Com all enjoyed a rise in shipments of 11n access points.

Cisco-owned Linksys was the quarter’s leading network card manufacturer with a 31.6 per cent market share. D-Link took second spot with 22.3 per cent, while Netgear grabbed 19.7 per cent and Buffalo took 12.6 per cent.

In-Stat analyst Victoria Fodale claimed the wireless market was faring better than many. “Wi-Fi’s low cost, flexibility and maturity make it a valued technology for both businesses and consumers,” she said.

Jess Thompson-Hughes, managing director of wireless specialist React Technologies, claimed his firm’s revenues fluctuated in accordance with public sector spending.

“We always have a good March because people are trying to burn out their budget,” he said.

Scott Dobson, managing director of distributor Vcomm, said: “Our wireless business is very vertically focused on education so it comes in fits and spurts, but it is one of our significant growth areas.”