6/1/2004 -- Cisco is taking dead aim at the high-end carrier space with its next-gen CRS-1 router, but recent market research data suggests that the enterprise market -- where Cisco currently dominates -- should remain a lucrative sector, as well.

According to market researcher Infonetics Research, worldwide total enterprise router revenues came to $1 billion for the first quarter of 2004 -- an uptick of 8 percent from the fourth quarter of 2003.

Whats more, Infonetics researchers say, the enterprise market looks like a good bet going forward, with annual revenues projected to grow by 13 percent between 2003 and 2007. Whats even more reassuring, according to Infonetics researchers, is that sales of lucrative high-end and midrange enterprise routers were strong, even if low-end/SOHO sales were anemic.

Much of this growth has been spurred by a sharp uptick in sales of secure routers, Infonetics researchers say. While the overall enterprise router market will experience relatively mild growth over the next four years, the secure router market will increase significantly, said Neil Osipuk, directing analyst of Infonetics Research and lead author of the firms Enterprise Routers quarterly market share and forecast report. Cisco continues to lead by a long shot in the secure router space, but it will only take one vendor with extremely disruptive pricing and a little traction to impact the entire market.

For the quarter, Infonetics found that Cisco remained the revenue market share leader in the worldwide enterprise router market, followed by Linksys (in spite of being acquired by Cisco, Linksy still reports its numbers separately), which Infonetics says is in second place for revenue but first for overall unit market share. Rounding out the top four were D-Link in third place, followed by NetGear.

Worldwide high-end enterprise router revenues were up slightly in Q1 over Q3, while unit shipments increased by 17 percent from the same period. Surprisingly, high-end shipments declined in North America but grew sharply by double-digits in the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

Similarly, worldwide mid-range enterprise router revenues increased by 21 percent during Q1, with unit shipments up by 20 percent from the fourth quarter of 2003. Infonetics found that while revenue increased in all regions, sales were particularly strong in EMEA. Whats more, researchers say, unit shipments of mid-range routers are projected to grow by 74 percent between 2003 and 2007.

Solid growth in the high-end and strong growth in the midrange helped to more than offset a decline in low-end/SOHO enterprise router revenues, which were down by 18 percent from Q4 2003, with flat shipments, to boot. Once again, EMEA bucked the trend with solid unit growth, while the Asia-Pacific region also posted moderate unit growth during the same period. North America experienced a soft quarter, however, researchers say. -Stephen Swoyer