802.11n, WiMAX continue to make strides

The IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN standard and WiMAX (Compare WiMAX products) are both making an impact on their respective markets for wireless equipment, according to recent data from Infonetics Research.

The research firm reports that the worldwide market for WLAN infrastructure equipment (Compare WLAN Management products) reached nearly half a billion dollars in revenue for the first quarter of 2008, inching up just 1% from the previous quarter and hitting an all-time high. The market includes access points and WLAN switches and controllers.

The increase comes despite the fact that there was a decrease in the number of units shipped.

Infonetics says that the higher-priced 802.11n equipment is driving the higher revenue on fewer products. The firm concludes that "enterprise Wi-Fi products will migrate from 802.11g to 802.11n as rapidly as 802.11b products migrated to 802.11g several years ago."

Interestingly, revenue from WLAN switches and controllers was down 4% from the previous quarter, but Infonetics says it expects revenue to grow at a robust 23% annually from 2007 to 2011. Also interestingly, Cisco lost its lead position in Wi-Fi phone revenue, with Polycom taking the lead.

Meanwhile, the market for WiMAX equipment, both fixed and mobile, increased 59% from the last quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008, reaching $363 million. Equipment supporting mobile WiMAX jumped 141% and overtook fixed WiMAX equipment for the first time, Infonetics says.

Motorola is the new leader in overall WiMAX revenue and is the first vendor to exceed $50 million in mobile WiMAX revenue in a single quarter, the research firm says.

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.