Enterprise WLAN Market Continued Strong Growth in 2Q21

Growth rates remained strong in the enterprise segment of the wireless local area networking (WLAN) market in the second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) as the market increased 22.4% on a year-over-year basis to $1.7 billion, according to IDC. In the consumer segment of the WLAN market, revenues declined 5.7% in the quarter to $2.3 billion, giving the combined enterprise and consumer WLAN markets year-over-year growth of 4.6% in 2Q21.

The growth in the enterprise-class segment of the market builds on a strong first quarter of 2021 when revenues increased 24.6% year over year. For the first half of 2021, the market increased 23.5% compared to first two quarters of 2020. Compared to the second quarter of 2019, 2Q21 revenues increased 10.8%, indicating that demand in the enterprise WLAN is strong.

Growth in the enterprise WLAN market continues to be driven by the latest Wi-Fi standard, known as Wi-Fi 6 or 802.11ax. Wi-Fi 6 access points made up 56.7% of the revenues in the Dependent Access Point (AP) segment and accounted for 45.0% of unit shipments within the segment. Wi-Fi 5 products, also known as 802.11ac, made up the balance of remaining Dependent AP sales.

Meanwhile, the consumer-class WLAN market declined 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the consumer WLAN market enjoyed robust growth as consumers upgraded their wireless connectivity at home. Compared to the second quarter of 2019 the market grew 10.1%, indicating that the market's fundamentals remain strong. Wi-Fi 6 products continued to grow in the consumer market, rising to make up 24.5% of the consumer segment's total revenue, up from 20.3% in 1Q21. Wi-Fi 5 APs still make up the majority of revenues (64.1%) and unit shipments (64.0%).

"The enterprise WLAN market showed strong growth in the second quarter of 2021. On a macro level, economies around the globe continue to re-open as vaccines are rolled out, causing organizations to consider their enterprise connectivity needs," says Brandon Butler, research manager, Network Infrastructure. "Wireless local area networking remains one of the most important technologies for enterprises to provide seamless connectivity, with enterprise-grade security, management, and assurance.

"Growth in the second quarter of 2021 was widespread across all regions of the world," noted Petr Jirovsky, research director,Worldwide Networking Trackers. "While year-over-year comparisons in the second quarter of 2021 coincide with the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, sequential growth for many vendors and growth in 2Q21 compared to the second quarter of 2019 indicate positive underlying trends for the enterprise WLAN market's future growth.

Cisco's enterprise WLAN revenues increased 6.1%. The company is the market share leader with 38.4% share, down from 44.3% share in 2Q20. HPE-Aruba revenues rose 16.5% annually in 2Q21. The company's market share was 12.2%, down from 12.8% in the quarter one year ago.

Ubiquiti enterprise WLAN revenues increased 49.7%, giving the company 8.7% market share, up from 7.1% in 2Q20. Huawei enterprise WLAN revenues rose 72.6%. The company's market share rose to 8.6%, up from 6.1% in the same quarter last year. H3C enterprise WLAN revenues grew 16.2% annually in 2Q21, accounting for 4.8% of the market. CommScope (formerly Ruckus) revenues increased 18.8%, giving the company 4.8% market share, on par with the 4.9% share last year.