Global sales of Optical Networking (ON) equipment are tipped to be flat in 2012, after spending contracted for the third quarter in a row during 3Q12.
Research firm Ovum predicts that seasonal increases in ON equipment sales in the fourth quarter will help the market to recover from the contraction in the first nine months of the year, to leave the overall sales figure flat on 2011. Sales in North America were down 11% year-on-year in 3Q12, while in EMEA they declined 8%, with a further 4% fall in South and Central America. Asia Pacific was the only bright spot, with sales up 14% year-on-year.
Ron Kline, principal analyst for network infrastructure at Ovum, says vendors will be glad to see sales stay flat, and predicts some uptake in the market in 2013. “The competitive environment is challenging at the moment…Now is the time to position next-generation products with operators, which will have no choice to turn spending back on in 2013.”
Despite the gloomy overall picture, leading vendors Ericsson, Fiberhome, Huawei and NEC did achieve growth in revenue on a sequential and annual basis, Ovum notes. The losers during 3Q12 were Nokia Siemens, Tellabs, ZTE and Alcatel-Lucent.