LightCounting Reports Optical Transceiver Market Recovering

February 1, 2010 – After declining 20 percent in the first quarter of 2009, global optical transceiver sales increased by 6 and 10 percent in the second and third quarters, respectively, according to the latest Sales Report from LightCounting.

Extrapolating this trend into the next two quarters, LightCounting predicts global optical transceiver sales in the first quarter of 2010 will match pre-recession levels of $600 million.

Sales of Ethernet transceivers led the market recovery with sales increases of 18 and 13 percent in the second and third quarters, respectively. Sales of optical interconnects increased by 85 and 19 percent in Q2 and Q3 2009, respectively, but this remains a relatively small market segment. Sales of datacom applications requiring Fiber Channel and Ethernet appear to be recovering the earliest, while sales of SONET/SDH and WDM modules used in telecom networks remain nearly flat.

“While Ethernet remains the largest market for optical transceivers, market growth today is centered on interconnecting supercomputers and converting copper interconnects to optical as speed and reaches increase,” says Vladimir Kozlov, CEO and founder, LightCounting. “The Active Optical Cable segment saw a surge in sales due to increasing popularity and new entrants, but AOCs also hold potential for other applications when we project out to 2013 and beyond.”

This report details quarterly sales of more than 100 product categories covering Q3 2008 to Q3 2009 for SONET/SDH, Ethernet, Fiber Channel, CWDM, DWM, and FTTx transceivers, parallel modules, and active optical cables. Data for the report was provided by more than 20 leading transceiver and optical components vendors.

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