Cisco wireless local area network (WLAN) market share decreased to 48.3 percent in fourth quarter of 2013 from 51 percent in Q4 2013 and 52.2 percent in Q3 2013, said IDC.
The dip in Cisco WLAN market share is despite growth in quarterly and annual revenue growth.
IDC said Cisco’s 4Q13 worldwide enterprise WLAN revenue grew 6.1 percent year over year and declined 2.5 percent on a sequential basis. Cisco’s 2013 revenue grew 15.1 percent year over year.
Cisco was particularly impacted by the relative weakness in North America where revenue was down 11.4 percent quarter over quarter and 0.7 percent year over year.
Aruba posted 3.5 percent year-over-year increase in 4Q13 and 7.9 percent sequentially. Aruba’s full year 2013 growth was 5.1 percent. Its market share stands at 9.8 percent of the enterprise WLAN market, up from the 9.5 percent in 3Q13.
Ruckus Wireless grew 20.8 percent year over year. Its WLAN market share is 5.7 percent. IDC did not share its comparative market share for Q4 2012.
HP 4Q13 revenue increased 18.1 percent year over year but declined 2.4 percent sequentially. HP’s 2013 enterprise WLAN growth was 13.1 percent.
IDC said the combined consumer and enterprise WLAN market segments increased 11.5 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2013.
The enterprise WLAN segment increased 11.7 percent in Q$ 2013 over the same period in 2012.
The consumer WLAN market grew 11.2 percent in Q4 year over year. The growth in the consumer WLAN space appears to be accelerating due to strong growth in the emerging markets and market transition from the older 802.11n standard to the newer and faster 802.11ac standard.
For the full year 2013, the enterprise WLAN market increased 15.0 percent and the consumer WLAN market jumped 11.0 percent.
IDC said across all geographies and in most of the key verticals, the expansion of mobility applications for enterprise IT continues to drive new investments in WLAN infrastructure.
Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure, at IDC, said: “While the growth rate has stabilized in recent quarters, new mobility applications, particularly for the education, retail, and healthcare verticals, along with expanded deployment options and the continued emergence of 802.11ac will lead to continued growth in the enterprise WLAN market.”
Enterprise WLAN market in Latin America grew 37.2 percent year-over-year in 4Q13. Asia/Pacific increased 22.7 percent and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region increased 20.1 percent in 4Q13. North America was up 0.7 percent.
