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According to the Synergy (News - Alert) Research Group’s “Synergy Q2 2008 WiMax Market Share report,” the market for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or “WiMax,” equipment is gaining momentum with four top vendors showing triple-digit growth year over year.

 

Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens and Samsung (News - Alert) reportedly achieved significant growth in their revenues. Among the three, Alcatel-Lucent achieved 278.5 percent growth year over year, while Nokia Siemens (News - Alert) and Samsung followed with 228.1 percent and 109.8 percent growth respectively.

 

Alcatel-Lucent is leading the WiMax equipment market. The company gained significant growth momentum in the sales of base stations. Alvarion and Motorola (News - Alert) are close on the heels of the number one position. The leadership for this market is likely to toggle between the top vendors, according to the report.

 

Despite unfavorable market conditions worldwide, Alcatel-Lucent achieved a growth of 71.3 percent quarter to quarter. Motorola too showed a significant 43.5 percent growth quarter to quarter. However, Samsung and Nokia Siemens could not put forth a remarkable result; they achieved only 23 percent and 15.7 percent growth respectively over the last quarter. Among the top six WiMax vendors, Airspan was the only company that showed negative growth year over year, with revenue falling by 9.6 percent, according to the report.

 

Synergy report found that two market dynamics are driving the WiMax market growth and market confidence: the growing 16e ecosystem and the recent certification process in June of this year. WiMax 802.16e is the base of the mobile WiMax.

 

In emerging economies, WiMax is being deployed as the first generation of fixed broadband access whereas in more developed regions WiMax 16e is being deployed as an additional broadband offering competing directly with or augmenting existing broadband and/or mobile services.

 

WiMax continues to evolve and it will be a device-based technology, with increased deployments on devices such as handsets, laptops, data cards and media players. The mature markets like United States and Japan are two key examples to show the technology’s continued market evolution. Licensing of the technology is very important. Many of the Asian countries like India, Japan and Thailand are in the process of licensing the technology. Timely award of these licenses will further boost the market, experts say.