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Global
News
February
14, 2003
802.11b
drives Wi-Fi shipments in 2002
UNITED STATES -- The year 2002 proved to be a stellar
year for volume growth of wireless LANs, driven by the
increasingly cheap and reliable 802.11b, according to
In-Stat/MDR. The high-tech market research firm reported
that business Wi-Fi hardware shipments are expected
to rise 65 percent annually in 2002, to 11.6 million
units and home shipments are expected to increase by
a very healthy 160 percent, to 6.8 million units. However,
fast and furiously falling prices for 802.11b equipment
are expected to cause total market revenues to grow
by only 23 percent, from 1.8 billion in 2001 to $2.2
billion in 2002.
Security
continued to be the most talked about issue on the business
side in 2002, while the Achilles heel of the home market
remained multimedia support. In the year ahead, the
continued growth and evolution of dual-mode 2.4/5GHz
capable equipment, Intel's ability to push outs its
Centrino mobile technology, the shift toward 802.11g
as the preferred 2.4GHz WLAN technology, and the advent
of new enterprise infrastructure technology, will all
shape the development of this market.
In-Stat/MDR
also found that:
- Many
new types of hardware shipped in 2002: 802.11a NICs
and APs; dual-mode 2.4/5GHz capable APs; dual-mode
2.4/5GHz NICs; and in late 2002, the first trickle
of pre-standard 802.11g products powered by Broadcom
silicon.
- Although
verticals continued to sustain the bulk of high-end
business purchases, low-end infrastructure equipment
flowed into an increasing number of small businesses,
as well as into remote offices and small departments
of large and medium businesses.
- The
increasing rate of embedded 802.11b into laptops greatly
increased, from 2 percent of NIC units shipped to
businesses in 2001, to an expected 14 percent of the
total business client shipments in 2002.
- Brisk
retail and e-tail sales of low-end router/AP devices,
along with NICs, drove the small business and home/SOHO
worldwide market growth. Retail outlets and Web sites
aggressively provided rebates on Wi-Fi equipment.
Contact:
Instat/MDR
Web:
www.instat.com
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