The worldwide enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN) market grew revenues 12,4% between the first and second quarters of 2024 to $2,3-billion, according to results published in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly WLAN Tracker.
On a year-over-year basis, the enterprise WLAN market declined 22,8% in the second quarter of 2024 (2Q24), which was in line with forecast expectations when comparing to a year prior. Elevated growth rates in the second half of 2022 and the first half of 2023 were driven largely by the drawdown of backlogged products stemming from the Covid-19-era induced global supply chain crisis. In the most recent quarter, major vendors reported that product backlogs have returned to normal levels.
Meanwhile, the newest standards in the WiFi industry continue to take hold in the enterprise WLAN market. WiFi 6E, which opens WiFi to use the 6 GHz band of unlicensed spectrum, made up 30% of the dependent access point (AP) market’s revenues in 2Q24. That’s compared to making up 14,3% of the segment’s revenues a year earlier.
Meanwhile, WiFi 7 is starting to be adopted, with the standard making up 2,8% of the dependent AP segment’s revenues. Most remaining dependent APs were WiFi 6 generation.
“There are a variety of important advancements in the enterprise WLAN industry, such as the new WiFi 7 standard, a significant amount of new unlicensed 6GHz spectrum available for WiFi, and the powerful role of AI and cloud-based management to enhance WLAN automation and performance,” says Brandon Butler, senior research manager: Enterprise Networks at IDC.
“Meanwhile, the most recent quarter showed signs that the enterprise WLAN market’s supply and demand dynamics are returning to historically normal levels. Combined, WLAN remains a critically important technology for enterprises across the globe.”
In the US, the enterprise WLAN market was down 30.6% year over year but increased 15,3% sequentially from 1Q24 to 2Q24. In Western Europe, the market declined 22,3% annually but rose 3,3% sequentially. In Central and Eastern Europe, the market fell 21,5% compared to 2Q23 but rose 14,4% over the first quarter of 2024. In the Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan and China), the market declined 16,2% year over year but rose 7,9% sequentially. In the People’s Republic of China, the market declined 9,8% on an annual basis and rose 39,6% compared to the first quarter of the year.
Cisco enterprise WLAN revenues declined 29,7% year over year but rose 6,7% sequentially to $922-million. The company’s market share stood at 39,6% at the end of the second quarter.
HPE Aruba Networking revenues fell 29,3% year over year in 2Q24 but increased 4,7% sequentially, giving the company market share of 14,8% in the quarter.
Huawei enterprise WLAN revenues were flat with a 0,5% year-over-year decline in 2Q24 and increasing 60,9% over the first quarter of the year, giving the company market share of 9,6%.
Ubiquiti enterprise WLAN revenues increased 7,8% over 2Q23 and 5,7% compared to 1Q24, giving the company 8,1% market share.
Juniper Networks enterprise WLAN revenues increased 6,8% year over year and rose 18.8% sequentially, giving the company 5,1% market share.