Router sales increase to $408m

Global sales of carrier Ethernet switch/routers (CESRs) have increased by 36% to $408m in the first quarter of 2007, according to a recent report.

The year-on-year result of the first quarter in 2007 was revealed by The CESR Quarterly Market Tracker, published by market researchers Heavy Reading. It also showed that sales during the rolling four-quarter period ending this year reached $1.56bn.

‘The CESR market performed well in 2007 and hovered above $400m for the second straight quarter,’ said Stan Hubbard, senior analyst at Heavy Reading and author of the CESR Quarterly Market Tracker.

‘We witnessed the first sequential decline in the market, six per cent, since we began tracking it, but this slippage should not be considered too surprising following the whopping 16% quarter-over-quarter market growth in 2006.’

With a 57 per cent share, Cisco led the CESR market after recovering share points lost last year from the number two Alcatel-Lucent.

Hubbard also highlighted the performance of smaller market performers Nortel, Nokia-Siemens, and Foundry, which each held just under three per cent share.

He said: ‘While Nortel, and to a lesser extent Nokia-Siemens, generated headlines with connection-oriented Ethernet (PBB-TE/PBT) in 2007, the behind-the-scenes story in 2007 was the rise of Foundry into the leadership ranks with its MPLS [multiprotocol label switching]-based CESR platforms.’