Router And Switch Sales Jumped To $7.2 Billion In 2005: Report

Router and switch revenue hit $7.2 billion in 2005, a 37% increase over 2002, according to a new report by Infonetics. The growth was largely driven by a 77% increase in core and edge router sales.

The report found that Cisco had a strong year, increasing revenue in the category by more than $300 million to $2.8 billion. However, its market share decreased from 61% to 53%. Juniper, however, had a $390 million gain and increased its share to 26%. Huawei and Alcatel each improved their overall carrier router revenue share and took the third and fourth positions.

The report found that in 2000, routers made up 47% of the router/switch revenue share and switches made up 53%. In 2005, routers are up to 73% and switches are down to 27% of the total.

Although the router/switch revenue has been on a steady increase, multi-service switch revenue has dropped 5% from $2.33 billion to $1.98 billion, after a high of nearly $5 billion in 2000.

"The decline of multi-service switches and the rise of core and edge routers are a sign of the times. Service providers are clearly moving toward next-gen IP and Ethernet networks, while decreasing investments in their ATM networks," analyst Michael Howard said in a statement.