BYOD fuels "vibrant" WLAN market in Q1

Top vendors enjoy speedy growth as IDC numbers demonstrate strength of enterprise wireless market

The fruits of the BYOD trend could clearly be seen in a stellar first quarter for the enterprise WLAN market, IDC figures have revealed.

During the year's opening three months, worldwide WLAN revenue increased 13.9 per cent year on year, with the enterprise market growing its worth 27.2 per cent to $790.3m (£500m). Latin America (73.8 per cent) was the hottest growth region, followed by North America (34.5 per cent). The EMEA market expanded at a comparatively muted 19.7 per cent.

Market leader Cisco, which holds 52.4 per cent of the global enterprise market, grew its WLAN sales a solid 27 per cent in Q1. Aruba, with 42.8 per cent growth, and Ruckus, which saw sales spike a whopping 183 per cent, were the top-performing vendors.

HP's annual growth was pegged at a relatively tepid 10 per cent, meaning the vendor's market share fell almost one point sequentially to 5.7 per cent. The full breakdown of the Q1 vendor landscape can be seen in the IDC chart (right).

Rohit Mehra, IDC's director of enterprise communications infrastructure, claimed that the trend towards employee mobility has boosted the wireless market so far this year.

"The momentum behind BYOD in the enterprise continues unabated, and is the single largest factor driving enterprise mobility and WLAN market growth," he said.

"Along with the increasing use of Wi-Fi by service providers to offload cellular data traffic, current market drivers in key verticals will ensure the market for enterprise-class WLAN devices and solutions will see continued traction, and that the market is expected to stay vibrant for the foreseeable future."