As Cisco loses edge to Alcatel, Juniper fires the PR cannons

Third-quarter market share figures show that Cisco lost considerable ground in IP edge aggregation routing during the period.

But instead of losing share to usual suspect Juniper, Alcatel appears to be the Robin Hood this time. Alcatel’s share leaped to 23.6% of the $376.3 million market in the third quarter, from 9.2% in the second quarter, according to Synergy Research.

Cisco’s share dropped to 45.9% in the third quarter from 60.4% in the second quarter, while Juniper’s slipped 1% to 19.7%.

Alcatel’s 7750 router, obtained from the acquisition of Timetra a couple of years ago, appears to be making an impact on the market.

“Alcatel’s strength in Europe and North America is mainly attributed to the success of its Multiservice Edge router (Timetra acquisition) with wins at SBC, Telstra, C&W and others,” wrote Merrill Lynch Analyst Tal Liani in a research note.

Even though it was Cisco that lost substantial share and revenue in the third quarter – revenue in IP edge aggregation dropped 25% from the second quarter and 31% from third quarter 2004 – it was Juniper that went on the offensive after Alcatel issued a press release, quoting Synergy’s figures, on its good fortune. Juniper was apparently so tweaked that Alcatel overtook it as the No. 2 vendor in IP edge aggregation that it twisted Synergy’s arm to can a glowing quote in a press release reiterating Juniper’s No. 2 position in overall edge routing – which includes IP edge aggregation, broadband aggregation and IP services routing.

“Maintaining an average of 23% total service provider edge routing market share for more than three years is a strong testament to Juniper’s market proven routing technology. Juniper delivers the performance, reliability and scale that service providers require,” screamed Synergy in that Juniper press release (you can almost hear the bones of that twisted arm breaking). “It is no surprise that service providers continue to recognize Juniper as a premier routing vendor in both the core and the edge.”

Yes, yes, and the Sears Tower is still a hair taller that the Empire State Building.

What that press release forgot to mention was that Juniper’s edge revenue dropped 6% in the third quarter from the second quarter, and its share dropped 1.2% during the same period. It also neglected to mention that, in IP edge aggregation, this third quarter was the third straight quarter of sliding market share for Juniper, and that its share in the third quarter is flat with that of the third quarter of 2004.