The worldwide Ethernet switch market was $4.7 billion in the first quarter of 2013, down 8% from the fourth quarter of 2012 but up 1% annually, according to Infonetics Research. The first quarter is seasonally soft but the market has grown over the past three quarters despite continuing weakness in Europe and the U.S. federal government vertical, the firm notes.
Nearly all Ethernet switch vendors reported lower sequential sales in the first quarter. Port shipments fell 4%, with 10G having the highest quarter-over-quarter decline. The only segment showing sequential shipment growth was 40G, which was up 2% driven by fixed switches and modular line cards.
[ON THE HORIZON: What's next for Ethernet?]
As far as 100G switching goes, Cisco is the early leader in port shipments but the market is miniscule, Infonetics notes. The firm estimates that only a few dozen ports shipped in the quarter, representing about $2 million in revenue.
Cisco is the only vendor shipping 100G Ethernet switches right now, Infonetics states, but that will soon change with Arista's recent 7500E core switch update.
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