The worldwide router market declined 23 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2009 as the global recession weakened sales across all geographical regions and market segments, according to a newly published report by Dell’Oro Group. Accounting for more than 90 percent of the worldwide router revenue are the top four vendors, in ranked order: Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei.
The report includes a forecast for 2009 that shows the router market declining for the first time in seven years. The year-over-year decline in 2009 is expected to approach that of 2001, the year of the bursting dot-com bubble.
“The results from the first quarter set the stage for a very difficult year for router manufacturers,” said Shin Umeda, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Service providers and enterprises slashed their spending budgets for 2009, and those reduced budgets caused a very steep decline in router sales in the first quarter. Although there are some signs of stabilization in the market, there are few upside opportunities for the remainder of this year,” added Umeda.
