Study: Wireless LAN market to top $4 billion

Falling prices and new technologies that continue to make wireless LANs speedier will bring a surge in corporate use, according to new research from Cahners In-Stat Group. Total revenue in that market will reach nearly $4.6 billion by 2005, the market researcher predicts.

Wireless LANs will be pushed, as in the past, by "Wi-Fi" (wireless fidelity) products, including IEEE products using the 802.11b and 802.11g standards, Cahners In-Stat said.

Wares from low-cost, high-volume vendors will push the market, with prices falling substantially, and quickly, next year. Wireless LAN products will become more prevalent outside of North America and that will further spur the market, Cahners In-Stat found.

Next year, the growth rate for end-use revenue in the wireless LAN market will go up because 5 GHz products will be introduced, the researcher said.

The new research report also finds a couple of hurdles related to wireless LAN growth. The main obstacle is that wireless networks don't perform as well as standard corporate network hardware and software. Also, IT professionals don't yet see that wireless LANs are a basic necessity.

Cahners In-Stat, in Scottsdale, is at www.instat.com/

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.