According to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, networks, and data center IT industries.
Supply constraints plagued the wireless LAN market in 1Q22, and will likely worsen in 2Q22 as a result of the China Covid lockdowns, according to research from Dell’Oro Group.
Several US-based wireless LAN manufacturers announced that backlogs approached 10-to-15 times higher than normal.
“Many enterprises have planned network upgrades and the popular connection is WiFi. The trouble is getting it. Several manufacturers announced that components from second and third-tier suppliers became the bottleneck in 1Q22,” says Tam Dell’Oro, founder, CEO and wireless LAN analyst.
“Supply constraints have resulted in highly volatile quarterly performance vendor-to-vendor depending on whether or not they have all the components. For example, sales may be up 20% in one quarter and down 20% the next.
“Another item, which could potentially cause delays, that we are keeping our eye on are the contract negotiations between the west coast dockworkers union and the Maritime Association,” Dell’Oro adds.
The Wireless LAN 1Q22 Quarterly Report also found that, for the fourth consecutive quarter, the retail vertical continued to rank among the top-performing verticals.
WiFi 6E sales accelerated during the quarter as more manufacturers launched products and Extreme Networks and HPE Aruba expanded their portfolios.
The adoption of WiFi 6E (meaning the percent of total indoor unit shipments as of the third quarter of the technology shipping) is tracking below the rates of the previous two technologies, WiFi 6 and WiFi 5 Wave 2. However, Dell’Oro believes this trend could change.