Dell'Oro Group: Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet Switches Drive Q1 Growth

Total sales of shared hubs and LAN switches grew 3% ($53 million) to $2.8 billion in the first quarter of 1999, reports the Dell'Oro Group, a Portola Valley, CA-based research and consulting firm specializing in strategic competitive analysis of the networking industry. Port shipments grew 4% (1.5 million ports) to 32.7 million. This growth primarily came from Layer 2 Fast Ethernet switches, which grew by $190 million (16%), and Gigabit Ethernet Switches which grew by $60 million (48%), during the quarter.

Industry leader Cisco Systems (San Jose, CA) enjoyed robust growth in Layer 2 100 Mbps Ethernet switches (both fixed and modular) as well as Gigabit Ethernet switching. Cabletron Systems (Rochester, NH) showed strong port growth in the Layer 3 Ethernet Switch market, growing to become the market leader with 143 thousand ports shipped.