Network market completes top-notch 2010

Impressive growth continues in Q4, IDC reveals

The routing and switching markets rounded off a stellar 2010 with a solid fourth quarter, according to figures from IDC.

The analyst's Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Networks Tracker reveals that Q4 revenues for the worldwide Ethernet switch market rose 13.4 per cent year on year to $5.35bn (£3.3bn). However, this did represent a slowdown from the 30 per cent-plus growth posted in the year's first three quarters. For the full year, sales were up 28.1 per cent to $21.1bn.

During Q4, market-leader Cisco's share of the Ethernet switch market rose almost a point on Q4 2009 to 66.2 per cent.

The router market also enjoyed a good year, posting a global revenue increase of 17.8 per cent. In Q4, sales rose 13.9 per cent sequentially, and 22 per cent year on year.

Rohit Mehra, IDC's director of enterprise communications infrastructure, described 2010's last three months as "a moderately good quarter" for the networking market.

"IDC believes that Q410 was a quarter of market consolidation after the strong growth from previous quarters," he added. "Although the underlying factors that drove growth in the first three quarters of 2010 still look favourable, IDC expects that overall market growth will be more moderate in 2011."