Worldwide Ethernet Switch Market Decreased 4.4% Year Over Year in
Third Quarter of 2012
The worldwide Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) reached $5.36 billion
in the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12), representing a 4.4% year-over-year
decline compared to the very strong 3Q11. Meanwhile, the worldwide
router market declined 0.2% year over year in 3Q12, according to the
International Data Corporation (IDC)
Worldwide
Quarterly Ethernet Switch and Router Tracker.
The 3Q12 results also show that the Ethernet switch market increased in
the mid to high single digit range, year over year, in Latin America,
Japan, Central & Eastern Europe, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). On the
other hand, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) was down overall with the
market declining 3.5% year over year, whereas the U.S. declined 6.4% and
Western Europe decreased more significantly just over 10% year over year
in 3Q12.
"The surprising decline in the Ethernet switch market after several
quarters of positive growth is a result of several factors, but the
highlight was that the slower growth in the 10GbE core segment of the
market could not completely offset the decline in the network
edge/access segment," said Rohit
Mehra, vice president, Network
Infrastructure at IDC. "10GbE along with the emerging 40GbE Ethernet
switch segments are the ones to watch as growth in virtualized
applications and converged infrastructure will continue to drive the
need for advanced networks in datacenter buildouts."
10GbE switch (Layer 2/3) revenue increased 10.7% year over year while
10GbE port shipments grew a remarkable 61.4% year over year to just
under 3.5 million ports in 3Q12, and continue to be the main driver of
the overall Ethernet switch market.
The Layer 4-7 switching market worldwide grew at 6.9% year over year to
reach $414.9 million in 3Q12.
The worldwide Router market was essentially staying flat in 3Q12,
declining 0.2% year over year. Regionally, the market saw a very strong
21.5% growth in Middle East & Africa and solid mid to high single digit
increases were experienced in Asia/Pacific (including Japan) and the
U.S. On the other hand, Central & Eastern Europe was down 8.7% year over
year, Latin America declined 12.2% year over year, and Western Europe
dropped a very significant 20.8% year over year in 3Q12.
From a vendor perspective, Cisco's Ethernet switch (Layer 2/3) market
share in 3Q12 came in at 62.2%, reflecting a year-over-year decrease
from 65.6% in 3Q11. Cisco's market share in the fast growing 10GbE
market segment stands at 68.5% in 3Q12.
A graphic showing the 3Q12 market shares of the top 5 vendors in the
worldwide Layer 2/3 Ethernet switch market is available at IDC.com. The
chart is intended for public use in online news articles and social
media. Instructions on how to embed this graphic can be found by viewing this
press release on IDC.com.
"While on the one hand the overall market suffered from increased
macroeconomic uncertainty and weakness in the public sector in many
regions, the year-over-year comparisons were harder this time around
because of the stronger performance of the market in the same period
last year," said Petr
Jirovský, senior research analyst in IDC's Networking Trackers
Group. "That said, the overall market drivers, such as proliferation of
video traffic on the network, and the need to support mobility and BYOD
at the network edge will continue to keep the enterprise networking
market relevant over the longer term."
The IDC's Worldwide
Quarterly Ethernet Switch and Router Tracker provides total market
size and vendor shares for the Ethernet switch and router technologies
in an easy-to-use Excel pivot table format. The geographic coverage for
both the Ethernet switch market and the router market includes eight
major regions (USA, Canada, Latin America, Asia/Pacific (excluding
Japan), Japan, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and Middle
East and Africa) and 58 countries. The Ethernet switch market is further
segmented by speed (100Mb, 1000Mb, 10Gb, 40Gb), form factor (fixed
managed, fixed unmanaged, modular), and layer (L2, L3, L4-7).
Measurement for the Ethernet switch market is provided in factory
revenue, customer revenue, and port shipments. The router market is
further split by product class (high-end, mid-range, low-end, SOHO) and
deployment (service provider, enterprise) and the measurements are in
factory revenue, customer revenue, and unit shipments.
For more information about IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch and
Router Tracker, please contact Kathy Nagamine (knagamine@idc.com).
About IDC Trackers
IDC
Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor
share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than
100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research
processes, IDC's Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and
monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly
excel deliverables and on-line query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app
allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Tracker
products on their iPhone
and iPad.
About IDC
International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of
market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information
technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC
helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment
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and trends in over 110 countries. For more than 48 years, IDC has
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