WLAN market fulfils promise in Q3

Infonetics announces upbeat third-quarter figures following Juniper's acquisition of Trapeze

The wireless LAN market lived up to its billing as a fast-growth market in the third quarter and is on course to expand 17 per cent this year.

Juniper entered the wireless last month via its $152m (£96m) acquisition of Trapeze Networks, citing its high growth potential.

According to market watcher Infonetics Research, global WLAN equipment sales rose 12 per cent annually and 14 per cent sequentially to hit $680m in the three months to October.

Cisco enjoyed a particularly strong quarter as its market share of WLAN equipment, excluding WiFi phones, jumped four percentage points sequentially to 51 per cent.

Aruba and HP rounded out the top three, Infonetics said.

802.11n access points (APs) now contribute 44 per cent of all AP shipments, 16 points up on last year and five points up on Q2, the market watcher added.

Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics, said: “North America is doing well in many equipment markets this quarter, and EMEA is back on track after stalling in 2Q10.

“Once we tally fourth quarter results early next year, we expect the overall WLAN market will have grown about 17 per cent in 2010 over 2009.”