Taiwanese switch shipments amounted to 35.7 million ports in the fourth quarter of 2004, growing 12% sequentially and 21% year-on-year. Shipment value grew 1% year-on-year and tumbled 8% sequentially to US$160.6 million.
The retail market drove fourth quarter increases, with D-Link casting off its poor third quarter performance and effecting dramatic fourth quarter gains. Netgear and Linksys's volume also remained steady. In the enterprise segment, although Cisco maintained leadership in Gigabit and layer 3 switches, the production of new Gigabit and layer 3 models awarded by Extreme, Enterasys, Dell, Nortel, and Alcatel in the second half of 2004 generated an upswing in Taiwanese volume during the fourth quarter.
However, suppressed by the heavy volume of Layer 2 10/100M switches, Gigabit and layer 3 switches accounted for a lower share of Taiwanese product mix. Additionally, Gigabit switch chip prices were impacted by intense competition between Broadcom, Marvell, Vittesse, and Agere. Switch shipment value and ASP (Average Selling Price) thus saw dramatic sequential declines in the fourth quarter.
The first quarter of 2005 will witness the onset of the weak retail season, which will likely result in a volume decline of the layer 2 10/100M switches that comprise the bulk of Taiwanese shipments. Furthermore, the layer 2 managed Gigabit, layer 3, and high port-count switches that are outsourced to Taiwanese players will not be affected by the retail market, yet these devices still comprise a small share of Taiwanese product mix, limiting their contribution to shipment volume. Taiwanese switch shipments are hence expected to drop 2% sequentially to roughly 35 million units in the first quarter.
For future receipt of press releases, or more information about MIC research findings, please contact MIC Public Relations.
About MIC
Market Intelligence Center, based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan's premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry. https://mic.iii.org.tw/english