Enterprise WLAN Market Declined 5.2% in the Third Quarter of 2023 as Vendor Backlog Clears, IDC Worldwide WLAN Tracker Shows

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• Petr Jirovsky  Email: pjirovsky@idc.com  Phone number: 413-313-6112
• Brandon Butler  Email: bbutler@idc.com  Phone number: 508-935-4325
• Michael Shirer  Email: press@idc.com  Phone number: 508-935-4200

Consumer WLAN market declined 13.2% in the third quarter of 2023

NEEDHAM, Mass., December 6, 2023 – The enterprise segment of the worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market declined 5.2% year over year to $2.5 billion in the third quarter of 2023 (3Q23), according to results published in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker.

Recent quarters in the WLAN industry have seen outsized growth rates, driven by vendors drawing down a record high backlog of product orders as supply chain and product availabilities normalize. In the most recent quarter, organizations across the globe are taking time to implement the high amount of product that has been delivered in recent quarters, leading to declining growth rates, which is an issue that's expected to persist in the coming quarter ahead.

At the same time, adoption of Wi-Fi 6E, the newest standard in the WLAN industry that expands Wi-Fi's use to include the 6 GHz band of spectrum, continued to grow in 3Q23. Wi-Fi 6E revenues grew 13.0% between the second and third quarters to make up 20.4% of dependent access point (AP) revenues and 9.6% of the quarter's unit shipments. Wi-Fi 6 made up most of the remaining dependent AP revenues (74.8%) and unit shipments (76.6%) with the legacy Wi-Fi 5 standard making up the balance.

The consumer segment of the WLAN market declined 13.7% year over year in 3Q23. Wi-Fi 6 made up 57.9% of the market segment's revenues, with Wi-Fi 5 still accounting for 32.4% of market revenues. Wi-Fi 6E adoption remains nascent in the consumer segment, making up just 6.2% of revenues.

"The third quarter of 2023 marked a shift in the multi-year dynamics of the WLAN industry related to supply chain disruptions, product backlogs, and now, with product availability increasing, a period where organizations across the globe are deploying WLAN products before placing new orders," explained Brandon Butler, research manager, Enterprise Networks at IDC. "Nonetheless, WLAN remains an important technology for organizations and enhancements like the continued adoption of Wi-Fi 6E continue to drive the WLAN market forward."

The enterprise WLAN market had mixed results across the globe. In the United States, the market increased 1.2% year over year in 3Q23 while in Canada the market fell 3.9%. In Latin America, the market rose 23.5%. In Western Europe, the market declined 11.2% while in Central and Eastern Europe, the market was off 6.7%. In the Middle East & Africa region, market revenues rose 7.5%. In the Asia/Pacific region, excluding Japan and China, the market fell 0.6%. In the People’s Republic of China, the market declined 24.1%, while in Japan the market fell 12.8%.

• Cisco's enterprise WLAN revenues increased 3.5% year over year in 3Q23 to $1.08 billion. The company's market share stood at 43.4% at the end of the quarter.
• HPE Aruba Networking revenues declined 25.7% year over year in 3Q23, giving the company market share of 12.0% in the quarter.
• Huawei enterprise WLAN revenues rose 12.4% year over year in 3Q23, giving the company market share of 7.2%.
• Ubiquiti enterprise WLAN revenues declined 15.6%, giving the company 6.4% market share.
• CommScope enterprise WLAN revenues increased 19.1% year over year in the quarter, giving the company market share of 5.1%.
• Juniper Networks enterprise WLAN revenues increased 18.7% year over year, giving the company 4.5% market share.

The IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker provides total market size and vendors share data in an easy-to-use Excel Pivot Table format. The geographic coverage includes nine major regions (USA, Canada, Latin America, People's Republic of China, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan & China), Japan, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle East and Africa) and 60 countries. The WLAN market is further segmented by product class, product type, product, standard, and location. Measurement for the WLAN market is provided in vendor revenue, value, and unit shipments.

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