The carrier Ethernet switch and IP router market grew 20.5% to $12.8 billion in 2010 over 2009, 
led by North America, according to a new report from Infonetics. In 4Q10, sales of IP edge and core routers and carrier Ethernet switches are up 15.2% from the previous quarter, and up 23.4% from the year-ago quarter. Meanwhile, multiservice ATM switches continued their inevitable decline, down 48% to $308 million in 2010. Cisco increased its worldwide IP router and carrier Ethernet switch revenue 21.6% in 2010, pushing their 2010 market share to 42.5%.
Significantly, Infonetics noted that Alcatel-Lucent climbed to No.2 in the IP router market.
“Alcatel-Lucent has been steadily taking IP router market share for the past 3 years, to the point that, even though they only play in the edge router segment, they are now #2 worldwide in the total IP edge and core router market. ALU had its best-ever quarter in IP edge routers, with revenue up 56% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2010, pushing them above Juniper, which also posted solid growth,” notes Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst for carrier and data center networks at Infonetics Research.http://www.infonetics.com
