08 Jan 2016

January 8, 2015, Prague – In the third quarter of 2015, the value of the combined consumer and enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN) market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) grew by 11.7% compared to Q2, in U.S. dollar terms. In year-on-year terms, however, the combined market value decreased by 5.5%.

According to results published by International Data Corporation (IDC), enterprise market segment value declined 0.9% year on year, following the slight year-on-year decrease observed in Q2. The year-on-year decrease can be attributed to the USD/EUR exchange rates fluctuations, as well as unstable political and economic situation in some of the sub-regions. Further inhibitors included the delayed WLAN infrastructure investments caused by the enterprises' uncertainty associated with 802.11ac Wave 2 products release throughout the year. Enterprise market segment value grew 7.3% quarter on quarter.

The sales of 802.11ac standard-compliant access points (APs) continue to shape the market in Q3. 802.11ac devices represented 64% of overall market value and 32.7% of overall volume in the EMEA enterprise AP market. This trend will continue next year, reflecting the sales of the Wave 2 devices.

“The WLAN market recovered slightly after two quarters of decreasing revenues,” says Elena Szolgayova, a senior research analyst at IDC. “This can be attributed to the seasonality of the market, however, with the second half of the year being generally stronger than the first.”

WLAN revenues generated by consumer-class devices sales grew by 15.8% compared to the previous quarter, but dropped by 9.3% year on year; 802.11ac devices contributed 26.6% to overall consumer market revenues.

Key Highlights by Region

• Each of the sub-regions recorded growth in enterprise WLAN market value compared to the previous quarter, although Western Europe was the only region to post year-on-year growth as well, with a 2.3% increase in value.
• Total enterprise WLAN revenues in Central and Eastern Europe decreased 13.2% year on year, mainly due to market value contraction in Russia.
• The Middle East and Africa WLAN enterprise market value grew by 5.1% quarter on quarter but decreased 5.4% year on year.

Key Highlights by Vendor

• Cisco's Q3 2015 EMEA WLAN revenue increased by 4.8% quarter on quarter. The vendor’s market value share decreased slightly compared to the previous quarter to 48.6%.
• Joint HPE-Aruba revenues increased 17.0% year on year. HPE strengthened its market position, gaining 1.2 percentage points revenues market share, to claim 14.3% of the overall market.
• Ruckus recorded strong 23.4% quarter-on-quarter revenue growth, repeatedly gaining market value share and accounting for almost 7% of the overall enterprise market.