Worldwide Enterprise WLAN Growth Momentum Continues

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The enterprise segment of the worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market reached its highest quarterly revenue ever in the fourth quarter of 2022 (4Q22), rising 47.9% year over year to $3.35 billion. The market grew 31.4% year over year for the full year 2022 with revenues reaching $10.0 billion, according to results published in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker. 

Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, the newest standards in the WLAN industry, continue to drive growth in the enterprise segment of the market. Wi-Fi 6 Dependent Access Points (APs) grew 36.8% sequentially from 3Q22 to 4Q22, and in the fourth quarter of the year made up 82.8% of dependent AP revenues. Meanwhile, Wi-Fi 6E, which expands Wi-Fi's use to the 6 GHz band of spectrum, saw continued rapid adoption with revenues almost doubling from 3Q22 to 4Q22 to reach $209 million with Wi-Fi 6E making up 7.2% of Dependent AP sales in 4Q22.

The consumer segment of the WLAN market increased 4.0% year over year in 4Q22 and grew 0.2% for the full year. Adoption of Wi-Fi 6 continues in the consumer segment of the WLAN market too: In 4Q22, Wi-Fi 6 made up 49.3% of the market segment's revenues.

"The enterprise segment of the WLAN market continued its rapid growth in the final quarter of 2022, driven by the continued easing of the component shortages and supply chain disruptions, combined with enterprises investing in the newest Wi-Fi standards," said Brandon Butler, research manager, Enterprise Networks, IDC. "The strong performance of the enterprise WLAN industry shows the importance of wireless technology in the network and digital transformation goals of organizations across the globe."

The enterprise WLAN market had generally strong results across the globe. In the United States, the market increased 56.4% year over year in 4Q22 and rose 31.4% for the full year. In Canada the market rose 43.1% in the quarter and 17.5% for the year; in Latin America the market grew 104.4% in 4Q22 and rose 45.6% for the full year. In Western Europe, the market increased 77.1% in the quarter, and rose 52.8% for the full year. In Central and Eastern Europe, the market increased 8.2% in 4Q22, but declined 4.9% for the full year. In the Middle East & Africa, the market rose 73.8% in the quarter and grew 42.0% for the year. In the Asia/Pacific region (excluding Japan and China), the market rose 44.9% in the quarter and grew 34.2% for the full year. In the People’s Republic of China, the market increased 5.4% in the quarter and rose 16.0% for the full year. Japan's market declined 6.1% in 4Q22, but rose 1.9% for the full year.

4Q22 Company Highlights

• Cisco's enterprise WLAN revenues increased 68.8% year over year in 4Q22 to $1.5 billion and revenues increased 33.8% for the full year. The company's market share stood at 41.2% to end 2022.
• HPE-Aruba revenues rose 49.6% year over year in 4Q22 and rose 50.9% for the full year, giving the company market share of 14.6% to end 2022.
• Huawei enterprise WLAN revenues rose 52.4% year over year in 4Q22 and rose 33.6% for the full year, giving the company market share of 7.6% for 2022.
• Ubiquiti enterprise WLAN revenues increased 23.8% year over year in 4Q22 and rose 11.4% for the full year, giving the company 6.8% market share for 2022.
• H3C revenues increased 5.9% in 4Q22, and increased 14.4% for the full year, giving the company a market share of 4.2% to end 2022.