The worldwide Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) reached a record $5,96-billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13), representing a year-over-year increase of 4,8%.
On a sequential basis, the market increased 5,3% over 3Q13. Meanwhile, the worldwide router market jumped 2,2% year-over-year. Sequentially, the router market increased 0,4% after the particularly strong 3Q13, according to the
preliminary results published in the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Ethernet Switch and Router Tracker.
For the full year 2013, the Ethernet switch market increased 3% year-over-year while the total router market grew 1,5% year-over-year.
From a geographic perspective, the 4Q13 results found the Ethernet switch market saw its highest growth in North America (up 9,3% year-over-year), relatively good growth in Asia/Pacific (up 5,1% year-over-year), and Latin America
(increased 3,9% year-over-year). Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region remains relatively weak despite signs of macroeconomic improvements and declined -1,3% year-over-year in 4Q13.
“The worldwide Ethernet switch market is increasingly diverging into two market segments with different market dynamics – the enterprise campus segment, which includes the network edge that integrates mobility, and the higher
growth datacenter segment,” says ROhit Mehra, vice-president: Network Infrastructure at IDC.
“Taking into account fairly significant regional variations, the campus segment is relatively stable while the datacenter continues to reflect the rapid explosion of 10GbE and 40GbE switch ports shipments.”
10Gb Ethernet switch (Layer 2/3) revenue increased 9,3% year-over-year while 10Gb Ethernet switch port shipments grew a strong 35,5% year-over-year to 5,4-million ports in 4Q13. 10GbE continues to be the primary driver of the
overall Ethernet switch market, with the early stage 40GbE just starting to reach critical mass as a stand-alone segment.
The worldwide enterprise and service provider Router market lost some of its momentum after growing 7,8% year-over-year in 3Q13 and grew a more modest but still solid 2,2% year-over-year in 4Q13.
Regionally, the growth was quite uneven and ranged from 7,9% increase in Asia/Pacific to a decline of -17,6% year-over-year in Latin America (due to a tough comparison against a very strong 4Q12). North America increased 3,8% year-over-year and EMEA also recorded a minor positive growth of 0,3% year-over-year in 4Q13.
From a vendor perspective, Cisco’s Ethernet switch (Layer 2/3) market share in 4Q13 held steady from last year at 61,3%. Cisco’s market share in the fast-growing 10GbE market segment was 64% in 4Q13. For the full year 2013,
Cisco’s Ethernet switch revenue increased 2,1% year-over-year.
HP’s Ethernet Switch revenue increased 3,8% quarter over quarter and 3,6% year-over-year in 4Q13, just slightly below the overall market levels. HP’s market share now stands at 9,3% in 4Q13. HP’s full year 2013 growth reached
4,4% year-over-year.
Juniper had an impressive quarter having outperformed in both Ethernet switching and routing in 4Q13. Its router revenue was up 15,1% year-over-year and 3,7% quarter over quarter in 4Q13. Juniper’s Ethernet switch revenues
increased by 39,7% year-over-year and 33,7% sequentially this quarter.
“With the unified enterprise network edge continuing to gain market traction and new enterprise networking applications continuing to proliferate, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) is expected to hold its own for the foreseeable future,” says
Petr Jirocsky,research manager in IDC’s Networking Trackers Group.
“However, with IDC continuing to see stark contrasts between regions and countries; vendors are cautioned to take those into account while working on their near to mid-term go-to-market strategies.”
