By Telecom Lead Team: Global Ethernet switch market revenue
grew 5.5 percent in 2011 year over year. Market in Asia/Pacific region grew by
8.4 percent in Q4 2011.
In 2011, the worldwide Ethernet Layer 2/3 switch market
revenue stood at $21.1 billion, while the worldwide router market performed
better with a 5.7 percent growth over 2010.
While markets in Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and
Africa (EMEA) grew by 29 percent, 11.9 percent, and 8.4 percent respectively.
North America declined 2.0 percent year over year in Q4 after a very strong Q3.
For Q4 2011, worldwide Router market increased 7.3
percent quarter over quarter but was down 2.3 percent year over year. This was
a solid performance especially considering the exceptional market results
experienced in Q4 2010.
Regionally, the strong 16.6 percent growth in Latin
America and 15.1 percent increase in Asia/Pacific were offset by a decline in
both North America and EMEA, which were down 16.4 percent and 3.7 percent year
over year respectively in Q4 2011.
“With Gigabit Ethernet having recovered to a growth
trajectory, and with 10GbE and 40GbE expected to drive incremental growth in
datacenter and campus core deployments, the ethernet switch market is expected
to show moderate growth in 2012,” said Rohit Mehra,
director, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure at IDC.
10GbE switch (Layer 2/3) revenue increased 32.9 percent
year over year, and 5.1 percent over the prior quarter. For the full year 2011,
10GbE market revenues grew 26.5 percent over 2010, while port shipments more
than doubled during the same period.
Cisco’s Ethernet switch (Layer 2/3) market share in 4Q11
stood at 64.3 percent. On a relative basis, Cisco continues to be strong in the
10GbE segment where it now has 69.5 percent of the market in Q4.
“The stronger market performance in the fourth quarter
of 2011 was significant in the sense that it helped the Ethernet switch market
finish the year on a positive note with a port shipments increase of 14.2
percent over 2010,” said Petr Jirovský, senior research analyst in
IDC’s Networking Trackers Group.
