FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Ethernet switch revenue dropped 5 per cent in the fourth quarter compared to the same period a year ago, while market leader Cisco Systems Inc. gained 3.3 per cent, according to the latest IDC research.
The biggest gainer in the quarter was Huawei Technology, which almost doubled its revenue. Juniper Networks had an 18 per cent gain and Brocade Communications Systems was up 16 per cent in a Layer 2-3 market that saw 5 per cent growth overall in the fourth quarter, to US$5.7 billion.
For all of 2011, the worldwide Layer 2-3 switch market totaled US$21.134 billion, up slightly from US$21.2 billion in 2010. Cisco’s revenue dropped 4.4 per cent for the year while HP’s remained flat at 0.2 per cent. Huawei gained 37 per cent, Juniper 19 per cent and Brocade 5 per cent for the year, IDC found.
In terms of revenue share, Cisco once again topped the leader board with 64 per cent share, though it was down 3 per cent from 2010. HP has been flat since 2009 at 9 per cent, and Alcatel-Lucent was third at 3 per cent, essentially flat from 2010.
Juniper logged 2.3 per cent share, up from 1.9 per cent in 2010; Brocade was also at 2.3 per cent, essentially flat from 2010. Huawei had a 1.8 per cent share, up from 1.3 per cent in 2010.
In ports, 10G Ethernet switch revenue increased 32.9 per cent year over year, and 5.1 per cent over the prior quarter, IDC found. Port shipments of 10G Ethernet grew to a record 2.8 million ports in the quarter, and for the full year, 10G Ethernet market revenue grew 26.5 per cent over 2010, while port shipments more than doubled during the same period, according to the firm.
Growing rapidly is 40G Ethernet, which reached over 12,000 ports in the fourth quarter.
Gigabit Ethernet declined slightly from last year, from US$3.7 billion to $3.64 billion in the fourth quarter. Fast Ethernet declined from US$700 million in 2010’s fourth quarter to US$553 million in fourth quarter 2011, a reduction of 21 per cent.
(From Network World U.S.)