"802.11n device shipments still dominate the market, accounting for more than two thirds of total device shipments. However, 802.11ac access point adoption is starting to gain traction," says Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director of forecasting.

Devices with the very latest Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ac, started to enter the market in late 2012. According to ABI Research's "Wi-Fi Equipment" Market Data, a total of 0.2 million consumer 802.11ac Wi-Fi APs shipped in 1Q 2013. "802.11ac protocol enables speeds up to 1.3 Gbps as well as better coverage than 802.11n. ABI Research expects that 1 million of 802.11ac consumer access points will be shipped by the end of 2013," says Khin Sandi Lynn, industry analyst.

A new Wi-Fi standard 802.11ad (WiGig), which uses 60GHz band and delivers speeds up to 7 Gbps, was approved by IEEE in early 2013. The very first 802.11ad capable products are likely to enter market around the end of the year.

In the SOHO/Consumer Wi-Fi equipment market, TP-LINK maintains the dominant market share with 15 percent, followed by NETGEAR and D-Link with 12 percent and 11 percent, respectively. In the enterprise WLAN sector, ZTE has the largest market share, accounting for 39 percent of total access point shipments while Cisco holds the second largest market share of 26 percent, and HP networking ranks third as it overtook the market share of Aruba Networks as of late 2012.

ABI Research's study on "Wi-Fi Equipment" covers the worldwide consumer and enterprise WLAN equipment market. The report tracks equipment by product type, wireless protocol and geography. It contains market shares of leading WLAN equipment manufacturers worldwide based on quarterly shipment data and forecasts.

Source: ABI Research