Infonetics: Optical network hardware spending up in West, slowing in Asia

NOVEMBER 16, 2010 -- Spending on optical networking hardware grew quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter of 2010, according to market research firm Infonetics Research. Sales jumps in North America and the Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) segment offset continued slowing in Asia, according to information contained in Infonetics’ upcoming third quarter 2010 Optical Network Hardware vendor market share report.

"Optical network equipment spending returned in the EMEA region after many quarters of a weak recovery. Spending was particularly strong in advanced WDM systems while legacy SDH spending did not come back. All vendors that sell into the EMEA region saw solid gains except Huawei, which saw a significant drop in shipments," notes Andrew Schmitt, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for optical.

Other optical hardware market highlights from the report include:

• Compared to 2Q10, the worldwide optical network hardware market increased 6.2% to $3.23 billion in 3Q10, led by healthy WDM equipment sales.
• Optical spending in the West (North America and the EMEA region) jumped 16% sequentially, as North America continued its multi-quarter recovery and big carriers in EMEA finally started spending on optical network equipment again.
• The optical spending slowdown in Asia-Pacific that Infonetics forecasted last year is accelerating, with continued weak quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year performance.
• The ROADM equipment segment surged 25% quarter-over-quarter, setting a new high .
• Alcatel-Lucent returned to #1 market share position after four quarters, swapping places with Huawei after outperforming them in EMEA.
• Infonetics' newly updated packet-optical transport systems category grew 11% sequentially based on strong spending from Verizon.

Infonetics' quarterly Optical Network Hardware report provides worldwide and regional market share, market size, and analysis. Forecasts and more in-depth analysis will be published by November 19.

Equipment tracked includes metro and long-haul optical network equipment, including SONET/SDH (ADMs and terminals, metro MSPPs, and crossconnects); WDM (transport, ROADM, and long-haul submarine line terminating equipment); and packet-optical transport systems. Also tracked: number of ports and revenue per port for WDM and SONET/SDH products by speed (Ethernet, SONET/SDH/POS, WDM), from below OC-48/STM1 to 100G.

Visit Infonetics Research