A recently published report from Dell’Oro Group found that the enterprise-class plus outdoor wireless LAN (WLAN) market grew 5 percent in 2015, the market's slowest growth in six years. However, the analyst forecasts the market to double in 2016, as the upgrade to newer 802.11ac Wave 2 systems should stimulate spending in the second half of the year.
“Enterprise and outdoor WLAN infrastructure products are expected to grow at a faster pace in 2016 as new 802.11ac Wave 2 products from a large number of vendors begin shipping, and as the US FCC E-Rate program enters its first full year of funding,” notes Chris DePuy, vice president at Dell’Oro Group.
DePuy adds, “Looking back at these two factors, fewer vendors had Wave 2 products available across their product lines versus a year ago -- and the E-Rate program was counterproductive in its first partial year of funding due to cumbersome paperwork and slow funding review procedures.”
The new report also reveals the revenue share for the top enterprise-class WLAN vendors, including Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, Cisco Systems, and Ruckus Wireless. The report also covers vertical markets for Enterprise devices for the full year 2015.