The global carrier router and switch market (IP edge and core routers and carrier Ethernet switches) totaled $3.6bn in 3Q13, an increase of 7% from the year-ago 3rd quarter.
Europe/EMEA declined 10% in 3Q13 from 2Q13, but European service providers are expected to carry out a decent budget flush in the 4th quarter. Market research firm Infonetics Research has released vendor market share and preliminary analysis from its 3rd quarter 2013 (3Q13) Service Provider Routers and Switches report.
"The third quarter is normally slow for the carrier router/switch market, so a 10% sequential drop isn't overwhelmingly bad, especially with the expectation of a good 4Q13 and an improving year-over-year outlook," says Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks and co-founder of Infonetics Research. "All three main IP router/switch categories - edge routers, core routers, and carrier Ethernet switches (CES) - are up from a year ago."
Cisco maintains its lead with 38%, Alcatel-Lucent regains 2nd place, Juniper holds #3, while Huawei drops to #4 on the 3Q13 global router/CES revenue share leaderboard. Infonetics forecasts the service provider router and switch market to grow at a 7% CAGR from 2012 to 2017, when it will reach $20.2 billion.