EMEA LAN switch market up by 10.6% in Q4 2005

In Q4 2005 the LAN switch market in EMEA continued to grow in terms of both port shipments and revenues. Port shipments increased by 10.6% from 18.5 mln ports in Q3 2005 to 20.5 mln ports in Q4 2005, and revenues increased slightly by 0.8% to $1,267.5 mln in Q4 2005, compared to $1,258.0 mln in Q3 2005. In Q4 2005, fast Ethernet port shipments increased surprisingly strongly by 10.2% to 14.3 mln ports and revenues increased 2.3% to $406.2 mln. Gigabit Ethernet port shipments increased by 11.7% to 4.7 mln ports and revenues grew marginally by 0.2% to $801.8 mln in EMEA in Q4 2005.

As a result of the increased demand for fast Ethernet LAN switches and strong price erosion in the Gigabit Ethernet segment in Q4 2005, the average sales price (ASP) of LAN switches declined strongly by 8.9% to $61.9 per port during the quarter, compared to an increase of 1.5% in the period from Q2 2005 to Q3 2005. During Q4 2005, a number of vendors were able to grow both their port shipments and revenues with double digits, namely Nortel, Alcatel, Belkin, and SMC (Accton), and as a result were able to grow their market shares. The largest vendor measured in revenue in Q4 2005 was Cisco, with a market share of 65.8%. During the fourth quarter, Cisco lost most of its revenue market share it gained in the previous period. HP Procurve, Cisco's main rival in this market, was able to increase its revenue market share. The other major LAN switch vendors were Nortel, 3Com, and Extreme.