Local enterprise WLAN market shoots up 27.5 percent

Australia’s enterprise WLAN market saw a 27.4 percent increase year over year in the first quarter of 2021, beating out the global growth rate of 24.6 percent, according to IDC.

The analyst company said this growth reflects enterprises recovering from the upgrade hiatus that organisations took throughout 2020, as global WLAN revenues only rose 10.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020. 

Moving to the latest Wi-fi 6 (aka 802.11ax) standard is driving the growth of the market, as wi-fi 6 access points made up more than half of AP revenues worldwide for the first time at 50.5 percent. This is up from 43.7 percent in the previous quarter. 

"The enterprise WLAN market showed a strong rebound in the first quarter of 2021. As vaccines continue to roll out across the globe, organisations are preparing their enterprise networks for workers, customers, students, and other patrons to return to their campuses and they're investing in enterprise-class WLAN technology to enable connectivity," said IDC network infrastructure senior research analyst Brandon Butler. 

"Despite a pause in some Wi-Fi investments in 2020, WLAN technology remains one of the foundational technologies for businesses across the globe today."

On the flip side, the consumer WLAN market saw slower growth than it did throughout 2020, increasing 11.7 percent in revenues and 5 percent in unit shipments. 

Wi-fi 6 products rose to 20.3 percent of the consumer segment's total revenue, up from 16.2 percent in 4Q20, but wi-fi 5 APs still make up the majority of revenues (66.2 percent) and unit shipments (61.8 percent).

"Growth was positive across most regions of the world in the first quarter of 2021, which is a strong indication that the enterprise WLAN market is recovering from 2020," noted  IDC worldwide network trackers research director Petr Jirovsky.

"IDC expects growth to continue in the remaining quarters of 2021 as the impact from the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wane and enterprises look to invest in mobility and connectivity solutions."