The global optical transceiver market, including 10G, 40G, and 100G transceivers, grew 10% in 2012 from 2011, to $1.63 billion, according to a new report from Infonetics.
Some highlights:
- Shipments of 40G QSFP long- and short-reach modules are forecast by Infonetics to triple in 2013
- Tunable XFP shipments more than doubled in 2012, though at the expense of falling prices
- Despite surging in Japan, the overall market for 40G coherent modules is declining as 100G coherent deployments accelerate in China and other regions
- Tunable XFPs are the big growth opportunity: Infonetics expects unit shipments to grow at a 36% CAGR from 2012 to 2017, driven by the continued strength of the 10G metro market.
“100G optical transceivers arrived in force in 2012, with virtually every vendor fielding a solution. Though the market is nascent and the growth rate will slow, coherent 100G shipments are on track to more than double in 2013 and again in 2014,” expects Andrew Schmitt, principal analyst for optical at Infonetics Research. “2012 likely was the peak year for 40G WDM, but QSFP-based enterprise applications are ramping nicely.”