Ethernet, enterprise router market recovers

BOSTON, USA: Worldwide revenue from high-end, mid-range, branch office, and low-end/SOHO enterprise routers held steady in 1Q10, down half a percent to $818 million, on the heels of a 10 percent increase the previous quarter.

This is according to market research firm Infonetics Research, who released two enterprise networking market reports with new first quarter (1Q10) data and vendor market share: Ethernet Switches and Enterprise Routers.

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"The Ethernet switch market continues to rebound from the low-points set during the recession. The reasons for the growth are multi-fold: an improving economy, pent-up demand, and a reduction in back-log due to supply chain constraints in late 2009," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research.

"And although Cisco is under attack from all sides, they emerge the clear winner in 1Q10, growing their Ethernet switching revenue about 17%, while all other vendors combined grew pne percent, " adds Machowinski.

The report adds that following a 15 percent revenue gain in the Ethernet switch market in 4Q09, the market posted another strong rebound in 1Q10, up 12 percent to $4.6 billion.

On a year-over-year basis, Ethernet switch manufacturer revenue is up 41 percent in 1Q10 from its recession-induced low in 1Q09, it adds.

Cisco increased its Ethernet switching revenue 16.5 percent in 1Q10, after an even bigger jump in revenue in 4Q09, pushing its overall revenue market share to the highest it has been in years (72.3 percent).

Extreme also posted strong gains in the Ethernet switch market in 1Q10, while many vendors were flat or down for the quarter.

Newly combined HP and 3Com/H3C are now the #2 vendor by a wide margin, with 20 percent port and 10 pecent revenue share; the next closest vendor, in terms of revenue, is Avaya with two percent.

Avaya is back in Ethernet switching via its acquisition of Nortel’s enterprise assets.

The overall enterprise router market is up 4.5 percent year-over-year, 1Q09 to 1Q10.

Cisco posted a flat quarter in enterprise routers, balancing out a decrease in mid-range router sales with significant increases in high-end and low-end/SOHO router sales