The worldwide wireless Lan (WLan) market flourished in
the fourth quarter of 2002, according to a quarterly report by
Infonetics Research’s Wireless Lan Hardware group.
However, Richard Webb, lead analyst of the report, said the
growth has not been as explosive as expected, citing concerns about
security and network control as key issues holding back adoption in
the enterprise.
Consumers made up half the WLan adopters in the fourth quarter
of 2002. The enterprise and service provider share on the fourth
quarter for last year was 41% and 9% respectively and Infonetics
expects this to increase.
With North America leading the way, WLan hardware revenue
totalled $455m (£287m) in the fourth quarter - up from $436m
(£276m) in the the previous quarter in 2002. Infonetics
predicted that the market would increase over the next three years
reaching $2.72bn (£1.7bn) in 2006.
North America holds the number one spot in WLan revenue at 58%,
and that number should stay steady through 2003, according to
Infonetics. Europe comes in second at 22%, followed by Asia/Pacific
at 17% and the rest of the world at 3%.
Access points made up 61% of WLan hardware revenue, followed by
network interface cards (NICs) at 39%. Infonetics predicted that
this would remain stable through the fourth quarter of 2003, but
the proportion of access point hardware would increase through
2006.