WLAN equipment revenues, shipments rise in 2004

Global wireless LAN equipment revenue hit $2.8 billion in 2004, a 15% increase from 2003, according to new data issued this week by Infonetics Research.

Per Infonetics, 36.1 million WLAN units shipped in 2004, a 51% hike over the previous year. The report says unit shipments will continue their growth spurt through 2008, reaching 80.4 million--a 123% increase over 2004’s numbers.

Consumer spending on WLAN equipment was one of the primary catalysts behind the sales spike; together, consumers and small businesses accounted for 52% of revenues, with the remaining 48% attributed to service provider and enterprise spending. North American sales now amount to close to half of worldwide WLAN revenues. Among individual vendors, Cisco remains the worldwide WLAN revenue leader, enjoying a 17% market share and its third consecutive $100-million-plus quarter; subsidiary Cisco-Linksys was second place with 15%, followed by D-Link.

However, Infonetics reports that worldwide revenue dropped 21% to $619.4 million between 2004’s third and fourth quarters, a decline projected to continue over the next few years. The reports cites price drops for access points, wireless broadband gateways and network information centers as the reason for falling revenues, with the pricetags on 802.11b products in particular coming down since the launch of 802.11g.