Global Lan market soars

The worldwide Lan switch market surpassed $1.9bn (#1.2bn) in the first quarter of 1998, up 64 per cent on the first quarter of 1997.

According to preliminary results of a Dataquest survey of the networking market, the startling growth is due to a migration by end users from shared media hubs to Lan switches. Cisco is the chief beneficiary of the boom; its switching revenue grew by a staggering 132 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to the survey. In sharp contrast, Cabletron's revenues in Lan switching fell by 18.5 per cent.

"The Lan switch is the bright spot in an otherwise soft networking market," said John Armstrong, director and principal analyst for Dataquest's Networking Worldwide programme. "Cisco continues to show strong momentum, thus providing a continuing challenge for its competitors."

The router industry grew 8.6 per cent in the first quarter of this year with revenue approaching $1.3bn, while the shared media hubs market declined 22 per cent with revenue at $663m.

Cisco maintained 70.6 per cent market share of the router marker in the first quarter of 1998, but this is down 2.4 per cent from the first quarter of 1997. Fujitsu's share of that market grew 220 per cent from the first quarter of last year. It now has a 3.9 per cent share.

3Com remains the primary vendor of the shared media hubs market. It now controls 31.8 per cent of that market, up 8.3 per cent on last year.