39 mln WLAN users by the end of 2004

By year-end 2004, there will be 39 million WLAN users. These include both consumers who generally connect to WLANs via public hotspots, as well as enterprise users. By 2008, Radicati expects a total of 120 million WLAN users. The study projects that the worldwide revenue for WLAN Infrastructure, Security and Management will reach $8.6 billion by 2008.

North American adoption started the WLAN bandwagon rolling a few years ago, with laptop-toting users seeking ways to access email and the Internet. The corporate survey in the study shows that 40% of surveyed companies that have deployed WLAN stated ease-of-use to be the best product feature. 30% found roaming capabilities to be the best feature, 20% said this was RF (radio frequency) management, and 10% said that the product