AMSTERDAM -- Second-quarter results from IDC's EMEA Router Tracker show that the overall router market in EMEA declined by 7.6% to $952.9 million in 2Q04, compared to just over $1 billion in 1Q04. The decline was fueled by revenue declines in the high-end and SOHO segments.
The SOHO segment, which includes wireless routers, lost most of its steam in 2Q04, after strong revenue growth in 1Q04. The mainly residential router segment declined by 13.3% from $312.0 million in 1Q04 to $270.5 million in 2Q04. The decline was the result of severe price competition. In this segment a number of vendors were able to increase their market share both in terms of shipments and revenues, notably Siemens, Linksys and Netopia.
Cisco's revenue was down on the first quarter 2004 performance, due to a strong revenue decline in its high-end router sales. This is in contrast with Cisco's performance in this segment in 1Q04, when it its revenue grew strongly. On the other hand, Juniper was able to significantly increase its revenue in the high-end router segment in 2Q04. Despite Juniper's success in the segment, overall high-end router sales were down 16.4% to $303.9 million in 2Q04.
Cisco (excluding Linksys) remains the leading router vendor in EMEA in 2Q04, other major vendors in the EMEA router market in 2Q04 were: Zyxel, Juniper, D-Link, and Netgear.
"The EMEA router market is becoming increasingly competitive, with an increasing number of new vendors entering the market, and this has an especially negative impact on the price development in the lower end of the router market," said Peter Hulleman, a senior research analyst with IDC's European Telecommunications and Networking group.
IDC