Ovum: Huawei Tops Optical Networking Market

Ovum today announced its preliminary 1Q09 results for global optical equipment networking vendors. The global optical networking market, led by strength in Asia-Pacific markets, was $3.6 billion, down 15 percent sequentially and down 8 percent compared with 1Q08.

In a statement, Ovum’s Vice President, Optical Networking, Dana Cooperson said, "Huawei, posting a remarkable $790 million in revenue to lead the market for the quarter, benefited from China’s 3G race, along with teledensity growth in India, a strong and stable currency, and comparatively little exposure to the cool North American market, while Alcatel-Lucent suffered from much of the opposite."

Of the top 10 vendors, none posted both sequential and year-over-year revenue gains, reflecting slowing spending in much of the world. Vendors who beat both the sequential and year-over-year average market declines of 15 percent and 8 percent, respectively, include Ericsson, Huawei, and NEC. Those three vendors plus ZTE were the only top ten vendors that did not post revenue declines compared with 1Q08. Huawei and ZTE grew revenues by more than 40 percent and 20 percent, respectively, over 1Q08 in part due to 3G mobile-related spending in China.