Ethernet Switch Market: Cisco Dips, HPE Gains

Cisco continues to dominate the Ethernet switch market, but its revenue declined in the first quarter of this year while Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Huawei made gains, according to a report from market research firm IDC. Overall growth in the Ethernet switch market was tepid.

Cisco finished the quarter with a 4% declined year over year and its market share dropped slightly from 59.2% to 59%, IDC said. In the 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch segment, Cisco's market share dipped a bit to 55.7%, down from 56.1% in the previous quarter. The networking giant's service provider and enterprise router revenue dropped 2.4%.

While its Ethernet switch market share is much smaller, HPE saw its revenue rise 18.1% year over year in the first quarter of this year, according to IDC. Its share of the market grew to 9.7%, up from 9.2% in the fourth quarter of 2015.

IDC reports that Huawei continues to build on its small share of the Ethernet switch market with revenue growing 33.2% from the first quarter of 2015. Its enterprise and service provider router revenue increased 34.1%. 

Meanwhile, Juniper's Ethernet switching revenue dropped 7.3% year over year in the first quarter. The vendor's router revenue increased 2.7%.

The worldwide Ethernet switch market grew only 1.4% to $5.48 billion, according to IDC, which blamed the slow growth on macroeconomic uncertainty and price erosion in the 10 GbE and 40 GbE segments as the industry prepares for 25 GbE, 50 GbE, and 100 GbE.

The global enterprise and service provider router market grew 3.3% to $3.47 billion on a year-over-year basis in the first quarter. The service provider segment grew 4.9%, but enterprise routing dropped 1.6%.

Below is IDC's interactive graphic breaking down the Ethernet switch market and vendor revenue.

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