Routers grow faster than wireless LANs

If you can believe it, the high-end router market grew faster than the wireless LAN hardware market in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest figures from Dell’Oro Group.

Neither segment had stellar growth – but the 2% growth in high-end router sales worldwide beat out the 1% growth in WLANs. High-end routers are still a smaller business, at $343 million for the quarter, than the WLAN market at $411 million.

This isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison by any stretch, but it’s interesting to see the area that had been foundering pick up steam while the hot area cools a bit.

The high-end routers Dell’Oro tracks are usually used by service providers to carry Internet traffic. The analyst firm expects sales to remain flat for the rest of the year. Cisco made gains at Juniper Networks’ expense, the group’s report shows. Cisco’s revenue in this area grew 4% while Juniper dropped 3%.

Meanwhile, Dell’Oro explains that part of the reason for the slow growth in WLAN gear is that prices declined – even while shipments actually increased 6%.

Also interesting is that equipment based on the IEEE’s 802.11g work is really taking off. While 802.11g is not yet a standard, there are plenty of devices available that are based on the draft standard. Based on the strength of those sales, Dell’Oro says that over the course of the year the small office/home office market will rapidly move from “b” to “g.”