Wireless LAN market tipped to double
Wireless LAN market tipped to double
The twin forces of the consumer and enterprise market are set to trigger a doubling of the Australian WLAN market in 2004.
According to the latest research by analysts IDC, the overall WLAN market will grow 90 percent in 2004 from $43 million in 2003. IDC’s WLAN research includes access points, wireless/broadband routers, bridges, wireless NICs and wireless switches.
The consumer market is growing faster than the enterprise space, growing 120 percent compared to 2003. The WLAN market is finally reaching a maturation point and enterprises will increasingly adopt it to complement to their network infrastructure strategy.
WLAN technologies have penetrated the small and medium business in Australia, but until now, large enterprises had not widely adopted this technology. Issues that previously prevented enterprises from embracing it were security, lack of scalability and centralised management.
“Now with Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), the recent ratification of 802.11i and the increased supply in corporate tailored solutions, such as wireless switches and wireless blades, issues of scalability and centralised management will diminish,” said Susana Vidal, telecommunications analyst at IDC.
The future of WLAN adoption in the consumer “Digital Home” side is also looking positive. Broadband adoption is increasing and a number of devices with embedded wireless chips flooding the market. “Adoption of Digital Home devices will definitely play an important role in the increase of WLAN usage in Australian homes. Online gaming, file/media sharing, MP3s streaming among others will boost home networks deployments,” added Vidal.
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