802.11ac Wi-Fi Shipments Find Biting Point in a 43.3 Million Consumer AP Market-place

Worldwide consumer Wi-Fi customer premises equipment (CPE) shipments surpassed 43.3 million at the end of 1Q-2013; a 16.8% increase from 4Q-2012. “802.11n device shipments still dominate the market, accounting for more than two thirds of total device shipments; however, 802.11ac access point adoption is starting to gain traction,” says Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of forecasting.

Devices with the very latest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, started to enter the market in late 2012. According to ABI Research’s “Wi-Fi Equipment” Market Data, a total of 0.2 million consumer 802.11ac Wi-Fi APs shipped in 1Q 2013. “802.11ac protocol enables speeds up to 1.3 Gbps as well as better coverage than 802.11n. ABI Research expects that 1 million of 802.11ac consumer access points will be shipped by the end of 2013,” adds Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst.

A new Wi-Fi standard 802.11ad (WiGig) which uses 60GHz band and delivers speeds up to 7 Gbps was approved by IEEE in early 2013. The very first 802.11ad capable products are likely to enter market around the end of the year.

In the SOHO/Consumer Wi-Fi equipment market, TP-LINK maintains the dominant market share with 15%, followed by NETGEAR and D-Link with 12% and 11% respectively. In the enterprise WLAN sector, ZTE has the largest market share, accounting for 39% of total access point shipments while Cisco holds the second largest market share of 26%, and HP networking ranks third as it overtook the market share of Aruba Networks as of late 2012.

ABI Research’s study on “Wi-Fi Equipment” covers the worldwide consumer and enterprise WLAN equipment market. The report tracks equipment by product type, wireless protocol, and geography.It contains market shares of leading WLAN equipment manufacturers worldwide based on quarterly shipment data and forecasts.

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Broadband CPE, Broadband Subscribers, and Wi-Fi Research Services.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.