EMEA WLAN Market Holds Good Potential for Vendors

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The overall enterprise and consumer wireless local area network (WLAN) market  in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) decreased 12.6% in value and 20.3% in volume quarter on quarter in Q1 2015. Year on year it grew in value by 2.9%, with almost no change in volume. Growth in four rolling quarters starting in Q2 2014 exceeded 8%, confirming that the WLAN market is dynamic and represents good potential for vendors. According to the results published in the IDC EMEA Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker, the enterprise WLAN market grew 11.3% year on year. WLAN spending in the consumer market decreased nearly 4% year on year, in spite of 4.1% overall growth in the four rolling quarters mentioned above.

Sales of 802.11ac-compliant access points contributed 46.3% to enterprise AP market value in Q1 2015, showing rapid proliferation of 802.11ac-compliant devices in the enterprise segment, underpinning the demand for high throughput speeds and mobility in general. In the consumer segment, sales of 802.11ac-compliant devices contributed 23.7% to overall market value.

Controller revenues decreased 7.3% year on year, reflecting increasing demand for controller-less, often cloud-based architectures.

"The quarter-on-quarter decrease in shipments and revenues can be attributed to market seasonality, the first quarter of the year generally being the weakest,” says Elena Szolgayova, a senior research analyst at IDC. “However, revenues are expected to grow in upcoming quarters, boosted by demand for 802.11ac devices."

Key Highlights by Region

• The Middle East and Africa (MEA) was the fastest-growing sub-region, with 18.4% year-on-year enterprise WLAN revenue growth.
• MEA enterprise revenues decreased less than 1% compared to Q4 2014. Demand for mobility was driven especially by the hospitality industry.
• The total enterprise WLAN market in Western Europe recorded 10.6% year-on-year value growth but 6.8% quarter-on-quarter value decrease.

The enterprise WLAN market in Central and Eastern European dropped 17.8% quarter on quarter in value but grew 6.1% year on year, with the volatile situation in Russia a direct influence.

Key Highlights by Vendor

• Cisco remained the market leader in volume and value terms, with market share increasing 2.1 percentage points to 50.0% compared to Q4 2014.
• Cisco's WLAN EMEA revenue grew 9.7% year on year, down 3.0% compared to Q4 2014
• Aruba's revenue grew 28.0% year on year, thus maintaining a stable market share of approximately 8%
• Ruckus' revenues grew 7.3% year on year; it was one of the few vendors to register positive growth compared to Q4 2014

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About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, research, and events company. To learn more about IDC, please visit www.idc.com. Follow IDC on Twitter at @IDC.