This IDC study presents the findings of IDC's annual Network Equipment Vertical View Survey by 17 vertical industries and four company size segments. IDC believes these segmentations are increasingly important toward identifying opportunities in network equipment because of the nonuniform adoption trends of wireless LANs (WLANs). The results of the survey strongly suggest that there exist several key opportunities for WLAN deployments among specific vertical industries and companies of particular sizes.

"Wireless in the enterprise is still far from ubiquitous. Some industries, such as education, typically have large deployments, while others, such as construction and utilities, have lower levels of full mobility. Providing applications and technology offerings targeting these verticals will be crucial to addressing their unique mobility and networking needs." Dan Corsetti, senior research analyst, Vertical Views