This IDC study provides Western European WLAN equipment shipment and revenue data for the first half of 2004 and comparisons with the first half of 2003. Shipment and revenue shares are provided for network interface cards (NICs) and infrastructure by country and vendor for the first half of 2004. Market shares for embedded solutions are not included in this study. Technologies covered in IDC's definition of WLAN are 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g, dual-band solutions, and HomeRF. IDC started to include data for wireless switches at the start of 2004.

A geographical split is included for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the U.K.

"Despite the fact that 58% of Western European WLAN revenue is generated in the consumer market, the first signs of improvement in the enterprise segment already appeared. Vendors specializing in selling wireless switches aimed at the enterprise segment experienced very positive growth in the first six months of 2004," said Evelien Wiggers, senior research analyst at IDC's telecommunications and networking group.