Carrier routers, switches set record: Despite a weak year in North America, carrier routers and switches had a record fourth quarter globally in 2011, growing 11 percent sequentially to $3.9 billion, says Infonetics Research in its latest market share report. "The carrier router and switch market hit a record-high $14.5 billion in 2011, up 8 percent over 2010, making it the second largest telecom market segment after mobile RAN infrastructure," notes Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks. However, indicators from North America--where carrier router and switch spending fell both quarter-over-quarter and for the full year--and EMEA point to an overall slowdown. Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) held the lead in worldwide IP edge last year, followed by Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), Huawei, Juniper (NYSE: JNPR) and ZTE (Shenzhen: 000063.SZ). News release
Ethernet routers struggle in 2011: Ethernet switches and routers also reflected the changes in the global market. Despite a record year for Ethernet switches worldwide, hitting $6.06 billion in revenues, a 5.5 percent increase year over year and 1.2 percent sequentially, the router market fell 3 percent year over year, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). "The market recovery in the second half of 2011 is very encouraging for the enterprise networking market, with most market segments and regions making a contribution," said Rohit Mehra, director, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure at IDC. "With Gigabit Ethernet having recovered to a growth trajectory, and with 10GbE and 40GbE expected to drive incremental growth in data center and campus core deployments, the Ethernet switch market is expected to show moderate growth in 2012." News release
Smart energy hits its stride: By 2022, more than 60 percent of households in the United States will have an energy management network installed, says Parks Associates. And by 2015, retailers, service providers and utilities will be seeing over $180 million in subscription revenues for such services. "Energy management is being bundled with home monitoring and control, security, broadband, and video services," said Tom Kerber, Director, Research, Home Controls and Energy, Parks Associates. The research firms plans to detail this data further at its Smart Energy Summit in Austin next week. News release