Cisco Soars in Red Hot WLAN Segment
6/7/2011 -- Cisco Systems Inc. is sitting pretty in the wireless LAN (WLAN) segment, thanks to double-digit year-over-year growth.
This is in spite of the fact that Cisco's Linksys division actually grew at a slower than expected rate.
Cisco as a whole grew its WLAN revenues at a 20.7 year-over-year clip, according to market-watcher International Data Corp, which published the latest edition of its "Quarterly WLAN Tracker" earlier this month. Cisco's Linksys division grew its revenues, too -- albeit at a 7.2 percent year-over-year clip.
Cisco's strong overall Q1 performance in the WLAN segment follows hot on the heels of an absolutely blistering Q4 performance.
In fact, Cisco's aggregate first quarter sales were down by almost 15 percent, sequentially, from the final quarter of last year.
That's how good Q4 was from Cisco's perspective.
Sales of its Linksys-branded gear was down by only 5.9 percent, sequentially.
Cisco's overall performance mirrored that of the WLAN market entire, which IDC says posted year-over-year growth of 20.7 percent.
On the other hand, Cisco suffered more than did its competitors during the transition from 2010 to 2011: While the WLAN market as a whole shaved off 5.5 percent from Q4 to Q1, Cisco -- again -- lost almost three times as much. Again, did we mention that Q4 of 2010 was a really good quarter for Cisco? Having achieved so much, Cisco arguably had more to lose.
Besides, the final quarter of the year is typically the biggest for assets of any kind. The important takeaway, IDC says, is that WLAN sales are still booming, relative to their year-ago performances.
"The continued strength in the WLAN market in the first quarter of 2011 was encouraging with all regions and both the enterprise and retail-class market segments making a contribution," said Rohit Mehra, director of enterprise communications infrastructure for IDC, in a statement. "The tremendous momentum behind smart mobile devices and their continued uptake in the enterprise for business applications are driving enterprises to move forward with upgrades, extensions, and replacements of their wireless infrastructures."
One reason WLAN sales are so strong is that 802.11n has now emerged as a de facto standard, accounting for more than three-quarters (77.4 percent) of enterprise-grade sales.
-- By Stephen Swoyer
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