The wireless LAN market hit a new record of $2,4-illion in the third quarter, despite the continuing supply bottlenecks.
According to a report from Dell’Oro Group, the market grew a surprising 32% year-over-year. And manufacturers still have a huge pile-up of backlogged orders.
“The third quarter saw the second highest level of shipment volumes in history – a testament to manufacturers’ excellent navigation of the supply constraints,” says Siân Morgan, wireless LAN research director at Dell’Oro Group. “Their strategies of redesigning products, expediting components, and turning to brokerage firms are coming to fruition. On top of this, the high adoption of WiFi 6 is driving up prices, having an accelerating effect on revenues.
“We predict that the fourth quarter will be another record, with prices rising for the sixth quarter in a row, and shipment volumes skyrocketing. We’re also making the bold prediction that next year the enterprise class wireless LAN market will break the $10-billion mark, two years earlier than we predicted,” Morgan adds.
Additional highlights from the 3Q 2022 Wireless LAN Quarterly Report:
- WiFi 6E volumes are still lagging the adoption rate of the three prior WiFi technologies, while the new 6 GHz ecosystem develops and the industry plans for the arrival of WiFi 7.
- A shift is underway in China, with Huawei ramping up its wireless LAN shipments and seeing a drop in unit prices as the company expands to new market segments.
- Of the major manufacturers based outside China, HPE Aruba and Ubiquiti represented the largest portion – over 75% – of unit shipment growth.
- Arista and Ruijie Networks, two companies each with a small wireless LAN market share, made bold moves focusing on expansion.
- Public cloud managed APs are growing faster than the market and represented 30% of wireless LAN revenues.