Dell'Oro Predicts...

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- According to a report from Dell'Oro Group, the Ethernet Switch market will experience a 7% year-over-year decline in revenues during 2001 - a first for this market. A return to positive annual revenue growth is forecast in 2002. “As a result of the economic slowdown and the lengthening of the enterprise desktop upgrade cycle, we forecast that in 2001 revenues for the Ethernet Switch market will decline. The next enterprise upgrade cycle, which will likely be driven by Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop and 10 Gigabit Ethernet in the backbone, will not materially impact the market until about the 2003 timeframe. At this time, we expect the Ethernet Switch market to resume stronger revenue growth (22% year-over-year growth in 2003)”, said Seamus Crehan, an analyst at Dell’Oro Group. In a separate release:A new report released by the Dell’Oro Group projects the Worldwide Optical Transport Market to decline 23% in 2001 to $17.7 Billion. This decline follows annual growth of 49% in both 1999 and 2000. According to Shin Umeda, Principal Analyst at Dell’Oro Group, “The reduction in capital expenditures by Telecommunications Service Providers will have a long lasting affect on the sales of Optical Transport equipment. The number of large-scale optical network projects will be significantly lower over the next few years, so we don’t expect overall market growth to return until 2003.” Dell'Oro Group