Standalone access points from suppliers such as Proxim
and security gateways or "appliances", such as those from Vernier
Networks or Bluesocket will be hit by a price crash in enterprise
wireless Lans.
Enterprise access points, which include better security and
manageability than the consumer products, have held their price,
but that cannot continue, warned Gabriel Brown, chief analyst at
Unstrung Insider.
Enterprise access points cost about £250, while consumer access
points can now easily be found for £35 or less.
"802.11b has been all but abandoned for the enterprise," said
Brown.
The 802.11b enterprise access points cost an average of £220, he
said, but those products still on the market are basically
end-of-life designs, with the market leader Cisco Systems
abandoning it altogether.
802.11g access points cost an average of £310, while multimode
access points cost £458, although that differential will not stay
for long, said Brown.
Cisco still manages to charge a premium, with access points
listing at £700, although the street price is likely to be two
thirds of that, he said.
Appliances, such as Vernier's and Bluesocket's are "superseded"
by wireless switches so price competition will get more intense
there.
"In the appliance/gateway sector, prices are getting hammered,"
said Brown.
Finally, wireless switches still sell for a premium. Systems
sell for between £400 and £600 per port (a port on these systems is
roughly equivalent to an access point), making them comparable in
price to standalone access points, and a good deal when management
and other functions are taken into account.
However, the price varies considerably depending on how many
access points are attached to the system, and the systems all
bundle different amounts of software: some include RF management
and security while others make them into extra modules.
"The basic problem is the plethora of competitors, combined
with the paucity of real product differentiation," said Brown.
Prices will fall, to boost volumes, he predicted. Already,
Symbol - the longest established wireless switch supplier - is the
only company to really deliver on the "thin access point" promise,
in terms of the price of those APs, which cost about £100 (for an
802.11b-only product).
Peter Judge writes for Techworld.com