IDC: The global enterprise WLAN market maintains growth momentum in the third quarter of 2021

According to the IDC Global WLAN Market Quarterly Tracking Report, the enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN) market maintained strong growth in the third quarter of 2021 (3Q21), with revenue increasing by 11.9% year-on-year to US$1.9 billion. Consumer WLAN market revenue fell 7.3% year-on-year to US$2.4 billion. The overall enterprise-level and consumer-level WLAN market grew by 0.4% year-on-year. The enterprise segment's 11.9% growth in the quarter was based on the strong performance in the first half of the year. The first half of this year increased by 23.5% compared with the same period in 2020. Compared with the third quarter of 2019 (that is, before the global epidemic), revenue increased by 20.1% in this quarter, indicating that the market demand for enterprise-level WLANs is organic and strong. The growth of the enterprise WLAN market continues to be driven by the latest Wi-Fi standards (ie Wi-Fi 6 or 802.11ax). Wi-Fi 6 access points accounted for 62.2% of the revenue of the subordinate access point (AP) segment, and shipments accounted for 50.7%. Shipments accounted for 45.0%. Wi-Fi 5 access points (also known as 802.11ac) account for most of the remaining share. At the same time, the consumer-grade WLAN market fell 7.3% year-on-year in the quarter. During the 2020 pandemic, consumer upgrades to wireless connections have led to strong growth in this segment. Compared with the second quarter of 2019 (before the outbreak), the quarter increased by 6.2%, indicating that the fundamentals of the market remain strong. Wi-Fi 6 products continue to grow in the consumer market, and their share of total revenue has risen from 24.5% in the second quarter of 2021 to 27.9%. Wi-Fi 5 AP still accounts for the majority of revenue and shipments, with shares of 61.4% and 63.6%, respectively. Brandon Butler, IDC’s network infrastructure research manager, said: “The enterprise WLAN market is a dynamic market, and it continues to grow in the first three quarters of this year. A key driver of enterprise WLAN sales is Wi-Fi 6, which once again Promoting the development of the market. The enterprise-level WLAN market faces many challenges, and the uncertainty and supply chain issues caused by the epidemic are affecting the entire ICT market." From a geographical point of view, the enterprise WLAN market in most regions of the world is showing a growth trend. The growth in the Asia-Pacific region is particularly strong, and the Chinese market has a year-on-year growth of 37.8%. The entire Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan and China) grew by 12.7% year-on-year, of which Australia grew by 24.9% year-on-year, while the Japanese market fell by 21.3% year-on-year. The performance of the American market was mixed. In the quarter, the United States increased by 3.8% year-on-year, and increased by 18.0% compared to the third quarter of 2019. Latin America grew by 63.7% year-on-year, Mexico grew by 177.0%, and the Canadian market fell by 1.0%. The Western European market grew by 16.2% year-on-year, of which Germany grew by 28.8%. The markets in Central and Eastern Europe grew by 11.7% year-on-year, and the markets in the Middle East and Africa grew by 1.7% year-on-year. Petr Jirovsky, research director of IDC’s Global Network Tracking Report, said: “WLAN is still a key technology that drives the transformation of enterprise wireless-first networks. This will promote a relatively strong enterprise-level WLAN market in all regions of the world in the third quarter of 2021. growth of."

Market performance of important enterprise-level WLAN vendors:

In the third quarter of this year, Cisco's enterprise-class WLAN revenue increased by 7.7% year-on-year, leading the market with a market share of 41.5%, higher than the 38.3% in the second quarter of 2021. HPE-Aruba's revenue in the quarter increased by 5.0% year-on-year, and its market share was 11.8%, slightly lower than the 12.2% in the previous quarter. Ubiquiti's enterprise-class WLAN revenue increased by 6.5% year-on-year, and its market share reached 8.2%. Huawei's enterprise-class WLAN revenue increased by 36.6% year-on-year, and its market share was 7.8%. H3C's revenue in the quarter increased by 56.3%, and its market share was 5.8%, which was higher than the 4.8% in the previous quarter.