Overall telecom/datacom equipment market outlook rosy says Infonetics

Regardless of what you might happen to think about your particular niche within telecom and/or datacom, overall things are looking pretty good, says Infonetics Research. In its newly released "Telecom and Datacom Network Equipment and Software" report, the market research firm predicts sales of telecom and datacom equipment and software will grow at a 4.9% CAGR from 2013 to 2017, when the market will be worth $218 billion worldwide.

"Even though there's tremendous uncertainty about the health of the global economy and prospects for economic growth in the short term, the telecom and datacom equipment and software market is on track to grow annually through 2017, driven by major network transformations," suggests Jeff Wilson, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

Infonetics points out that after the recession of 2009, the overall communications market grew 19% in 2010, 7% in 2011, and held steady in 2012 at $172 billion.

"Asia Pacific took the lead in telecom and datacom equipment spending in 2012, and we expect the region to continue leading at least for the next 5 years, contributing more than a third of global spending through 2017," says Michael Howard, co-founder of Infonetics and co-author of the report.

Infonetics believes service providers and enterprises will spend a cumulative $1 trillion on telecom and datacom equipment and software between now and 2017. Going into this year, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, and Alcatel-Lucent were the overall market share leaders. Cisco dominated the enterprise segment, while Ericsson led in sales to larger service providers.

The company’s annual telecom and datacom equipment and software report offers worldwide and regional market size, vendor market share, and forecasts through 2017 for enterprise and service provider gear. It covers data networking and telecom equipment for service providers, cable companies, and small, medium, and large organizations, and therefore excludes consumer electronics.

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