IDC: EMEA Router Market Rebounds

AMSTERDAM -- IDC's EMEA Router Tracker shows that in the fourth quarter of 2004 the EMEA router market started to grow again after two quarters of decline. In 4Q04 the router market grew by 4.5% to $974.0 million, compared to $931.9 million in the previous quarter.

Revenue in the high-end segment, the largest router segment, was up 9.1% to $366.2 million in 4Q04. The second largest router segment, small SOHO, which includes wireless routers, increased slightly with 3.0% from $265.4 million in 3Q04 to $272.8 million in 4Q04. Cisco's market share and revenues declined in the 3Q04-4Q04 period. During this period, Cisco's revenue declined by 1.7% to $538.6 million, compared to $548.1million in 3Q04, and the company's total router market share declined from 58.8% in 3Q04 to 55.3% in 4Q04.

Cisco's results can be explained by strong competition with Juniper in the high-end segment and a decrease in its sales of SOHO and low-end routers. Overall, Cisco (excluding Linksys) was the leading router vendor in EMEA in 4Q04. Other major vendors in the EMEA router market in 4Q04 were Juniper, Zyxel, Netgear, and D-Link.

"The EMEA router market started to grow again in 4Q04, after a couple of quarters of decline," said Peter Hulleman, senior research analyst with IDC's European Telecommunications and Networking group. "During the quarter, not all vendors were able to benefit from the growth in the EMEA router market."

IDC