Dell'Oro: Ericsson outpaces rivals

Top infrastructure vendor Ericsson doubled its lead in the gear market during the second quarter while two of its major competitors lost share, according to new numbers from research firm Dell'Oro Group.

Ericsson maintained its market share from the year-ago quarter at 32 percent, but Nokia Siemens Networks, its closest rival, saw its share drop to 20 percent from 26 percent in the year-ago quarter, according to Dell'Oro. Huawei's share stood at 17 percent, up from 10 percent a year ago, and Alcatel-Lucent saw its market share drop to 12 percent, down from 14 percent in the second quarter of 2008.

The infrastructure market has been the scene of dramatic tumult over the past year. While overall growth is slowing--Alcatel-Lucent has predicted a contraction of 8 to 12 percent this year, and Nokia Siemens continues to see a 10 percent decline--Chinese upstarts like Huawei and ZTE have enjoyed notable gains. Both Huawei and ZTE have nearly doubled their market share during the past year, according to Dell'Oro. On the other end, longtime stalwart Nortel Networks has been forced to sell itself off in pieces in bankruptcy court.

As for Ericsson, Dell'Oro's numbers serve to cap a busy quarter for the company. Ericsson beat out Nokia Siemens in a $1.13 billion auction for Nortel Networks' CDMA and LTE assets, and it inked a $5 billion agreement to manage Sprint Nextel's networks. The moves improve Ericsson's North American position substantially.

For more:
- see this Reuters article [1]

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