Huawei overtook Alcatel-Lucent to become the largest provider of optical network and DSL hardware in Q1, according to industry research firms.
The Chinese vendor took around 23% of the optical networking market, Infonetics said.
Huawei notched around $790 million from its optical business, according to Ovum. Both researchers added that Alcatel-Lucent maintained the lead by annualized sales.
Andrew Schmitt, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for optical, said Huawei had been consuming much of the growth in optical networking gear for the past seven years.
Since 2002, the market had grown at 8% compound annual growth, “but for most vendors it looked more like 6% because Huawei absorbed a significant portion of the annualized gains. I don't see this trend ending anytime soon, and if it doesn't, Huawei could be the overall market leader for 2009,” he said.
The global optical market shrank 22% sequentially to $3.1 billion, Infonetics found. Ovum estimated that sales shrank 15% to $3.6 billion, with strong performance in Asia helping to buoy the market.
“Spending in Asia-Pacific was surprisingly strong,” Ovum analyst Dana Cooperson said. “We did not see the seasonal decline we normally expect in China, for example, as the race to 3G obliterated any seasonality or macroeconomic downturn factors.”
Yet none of the top 10 optical vendors posted both sequential and year-on-year revenue decreases, and just Huawei, ZTE and Ericsson beat the average seasonal and year-on-year declines, Cooperson said.
Huawei also took the top spot in DSL shipments, but Alca-Lu again maintained the lead after annualized adjustments, Ovum said separately.
Ovum's adjusted figures have Alca-Lu capturing 32% of the market, with Huawei holding 29%. ZTE took third with 15%, and Ericsson fourth with 4%.
“Having successfully expanded its presence in several international markets in a few short years, Huawei has exploited its market share fully, both inside and outside China,” Ovum analyst Kamalini Ganguly said.
Overall DSL shipments declined by 11% year-on-year and 10% sequentially.