...In the third quarter of 2013, 11ac access points represented just over five percent of shipments. But total wireless LAN growth continued to decelerate, with worldwide access point and controller investment growing 14 percent to $1.1bn. This was down from growth rates of 16 percent in the previous quarter, 19 percent in Q1, and more than 24 percent for the whole of 2012.
Market leader, Cisco, which increased its share of wireless LAN shipments to 59 percent in Q3, took the initial approach of offering an 11ac add-on module to its Aironet 3600 series 11n customers. It has now launched the purpose-built 11ac Aironet 3700 series. Second-placed Aruba Networks, which accounted for 10 percent under its own brand, took an aggressive pricing approach with the launch of its purpose-built AP-225, by having price parity with its high-end 11n line. Meru Networks also took a similar approach with its AP832.
“Gaining first-mover advantage in the move from 11n to 11ac is important given the opportunity to replace wired networks in campus and office environments due to higher throughput performance,” comments Matthew Ball, principal analyst at Canalys.
“11ac notebooks have been on the market for more than a year, but it is the arrival of 11ac smart phones, including the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy 4S, and upcoming tablets that are piquing interest, especially in the education sector. These devices will increasingly proliferate in workplaces and public areas, with more people wanting to use more bandwidth-hungry applications.”
In addition to supporting new devices, vendors are also promising an improvement in throughput performance for existing 11n clients with the deployment of 11ac access points to convert interest to deployments.
“11ac will be deployed in high device density environments, such as campuses, stadiums, airports and retail centers, and also be used for new purposes, such as mobile backhaul traffic, wireless displays and large-scale machine-to-machine processes,” Ball adds.
via WiFiNovation | Scoop.it
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