China is now the world’s second largest economy, and Chinese network equipment makers are seizing the opportunity brought by the huge domestic market to close the gap with their foreign rivals.
Domestic makers accounted for 52,3% of the network equipment market in the first quarter of this year, and their combined market share is expected to exceed 70% when H3C is restructured into a Chinese network equipment vendor.
Under the national strategy of nurturing indigenous network equipment makers to avert potential security risks posed by foreign products, domestic vendors like Huawei, Ruijie and ZTE will enjoy increased sales.
Within this dynamic environment, IDC is keeping a close eye on the networking equipment markets. Switch sales in the enterprise market and telecom operator market recorded the first-ever year-on-year decline in the first quarter of the year after several years of rapid growth, while enterprise WLAN sales logged strong growth in the period.
According to IDC’s “China Network Equipment Market Tracker, Q1 2015”, the market of China’s enterprise network equipment was $1,02-billion in the first quarter of 2015, down 34% from the previous quarter and 0,8% from a year ago. The L2/3 switch market contracted by 11,6% year on year, the router market expanded by 17,3%, while WLAN market shrank by 2,7%.