LONDON-Revenue from wireless local area network hardware will reach $2.01 billion worldwide for this year, according to market research firm Infonetics Research. Total revenue from WLAN hardware for the fist quarter of 2003 was $481.9 million, with access points accounting for 63 percent of that, garnering $304.7 million.
Consumers are currently the leading revenue generators, making up 48 percent of total revenues, followed by enterprises at 43 percent and service providers at 9 percent. Infonetics expects revenues from enterprises and service providers to rise as penetration increases. Geographically, North America accounts for 58 percent of WLAN hardware revenue; Europe, Middle East and Africa follows at 23 percent; and Asia/Pacific accounts for 16 percent.
“The exciting news is that 1Q ’03 saw a great deal of activity from vendors launching WLAN switching and security, as well as wireless IP telephony solutions that could drive a much steeper adoption curve within the enterprise mainstream,” said analyst Richard Webb. “These products will take a quarter or so to gain traction, but will make 2004 a big year for wireless LAN.”
