Sales of optical components (OCs) worldwide in 2010 grew 35% year over year, reports market research firm Ovum. The company’s new Market Alert: 4Q10 and 2010 Global OC and Market Share: 4Q10 OC Global Spreadsheet says that optical component revenues reached $5.6 billion last year, the highest mark in the last 10 years.
Ovum also forecasts continued growth for 2011, although not at the same rate.
“The 35 percent year-on-year growth experienced by the OC market in 2010 was the highest since the telecom bubble years, when the market more than doubled in one year. However, we do not believe the market is experiencing another bubble,” Daryl Inniss, Ovum analyst and author of the report, commented. “We predict that growth in the OC market is the best indicator for the next wave of telecom infrastructure expansion, as the 2010 growth follows the industry-wide contraction of 2009. What we expect is that the OC market is continuing to expand in 2011, but at a slower rate than that of 2010.”
The OC market finished 2010 with a 5% sequential uptick in the last quarter of the year. This represented the seventh consecutive sequential quarterly increase for the OC market. Growth was led by ROADMs and filters, long-distance transmission, and transmission discretes. ROADMs and filters was the fastest-growing OC segment last year, posting 46% year-on-year growth and annual revenues of $0.9 billion. ROADM and filter sales reached $260 million in the fourth quarter of 2010, a 10% expansion compared to the previous quarter and twice the industry average of 5%. Ovum believes the future outlook for growth is good as ROADMs are at the heart of all transport networks.
Concluded Inniss, “There were many strong vendor performances in the fourth quarter of 2010. JDSU led the pack in terms of growth and increased its revenues by over 75% compared to the previous year and 17% sequentially. The company also grew its market share by 0.6% on the previous quarter.”
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