6 August 2002 -- The worldwide router market will grow from USD6.8bn in 2002 to USD6.9bn in 2003 then USD8.2bn in 2006, says Dell'Oro Group.
The largest trend is the replacement over the next seven years of the installed base of 1-10Gbit/s routers in service provider networks, representing USD4-5bn.
There will be no sales growth in >10Gbit/s router segment in 2003, but strong growth in 2004 and beyond at levels higher than growth rate in global telecom capital expenditure.
"Marginal technology advancement, or increased speed, will generate little to no incentive for users to replace installed equipment. Users will look for extraordinary advances to justify replacing installed equipment which suggests that users may retain existing equipment for a longer period than they have in the past," says Tam Dell'Oro. "Incremental improvements to installed equipment will be more common than replacing a unit with a new one," he adds.