June 14, 2006 Charlottesville, Virginia -- According to a new report from market research firm CIR, the market for optical components used in telecom and datacom networks is expected to grow from $1.5 billion this year to over $6.6 billion in 2011. The report, "Optical Components: The Next Wave" is the next in CIR's ongoing report series that analyzes and forecasts market opportunities in optical components.
Highlights from the report:
- Fiberization matters: With the continued build out of more advanced and higher capacity networks, the active components market will grow from just under $1 billion in 2006 to almost $4.8 billion in 2011. This big surge in growth is due to the rapid penetration of fiber into enterprise and access networks needed to support PONs, Fibre Channel, CWDM and 10-Gigabit Ethernet, and the larger bandwidth applications riding over them.
- Tunable lasers requested and required: Tunable laser shipments are now being measured annually in the tens of thousands. Many equipment company and service provider RFPs also require them. Though there are just a handful of tunable laser firms left in the business -- including Intel, JDSU, Santur, and Syntune -- these companies actually have a market to chase after. CIR expects sales of tunable lasers and transmitters to exceed $460 million by 2011.
- At long last, ROADMs: CIR believes that firms such as JDSU, Metconnex, Optium, Optoplex, and Xtellus that have developed ROADMs over the past few years will finally see a payoff, as the ROADM market reaches almost $300 million by 2011.
- 40 Gbits/sec beyond the R&D lab: 40-Gbit/sec networks are becoming a reality and may well be necessary for new video services on which many service providers are focusing. At the components level, 40 Gbits/sec will increasingly represent an opportunity for those firms that can provide innovative ways of meeting the chromatic dispersion, PMD, and spectral efficiency challenges inherent in 40-Gbit/sec networking.
- Beyond China: CIR research indicates that the quality of products coming out of China and other low-labor-cost countries is often not good enough for high-end telecom/datacom products. It is possible that the movement towards Chinese manufacturing may be over.
The report analyzes the current issues and market opportunities for optical component suppliers. It provides highly detailed forecasts of component market segments broken out by units and dollars and illustrates how and where the industry will find new sources of revenues, according to CIR. The report also provides market commentary of components suppliers as well and discusses business and technology developments that are driving the market. Coverage includes the lasers, detectors, filters, amplifiers, modulators, splitters, OADMs, DCUs, and switches used in Ethernet, Fibre Channel, SONET/SDH, WDM, and PON networks.