There seems to something almost magical about the third quarter of 2013, which, according to many surveys, has been quite exceptional for various market segments, including the worldwide Ethernet switch market. IDC (News - Alert) paints a rather rosy picture, wherein both the enterprise market segment and growth data center segment are on an upward curve in Q3 2013.

The IDC worldwide quarterly Ethernet switch and router tracker indicated an ebullient market for switches and routers with year on year and sequential increases in the third quarter. In fact, the growth rate in the router market was stated to be the highest in over two years.

Revenue for 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE , a primary trigger of the overall Ethernet switch market, showed an annual increase, while 10Gb Ethernet switch port shipments also surged strongly  with year-over-year increase. Inventory and price reductions and broader product offerings are cited as reasons.

From a vendor perspective, although the enterprise and service provider router market performed well and registered growth in Q3 2013, IDC indicated that the pattern was not uniform throughout the eight major regions and 58 countries, and showed why this was so.

 Growth was stated to be highest in Middle East & Africa and Central & Eastern Europe (more than 30 percent), which tapered off to 14.8 percent in North America, and to single digits in Western Europe and Latin America. It was a tale of woe for Asia-Pacific and Japan where growth declined by 1.5 and 26.3 percent respectively in Q3 2013.

However, geographically, the Ethernet switch market followed a slightly different pattern in the same quarter. Middle East and African markets recorded highest growth followed by North America with about 12 percent, with other major regions experiencing different levels of stunted growth. Only Japan remained dejected with a 13.4 percent decline.

Cisco (News - Alert) retained its position in the vendor Ethernet switch segment, while HP grew its share and increased its revenue by 6.5 percent year-over-year in Q3 2013. Other vendors showed sequential increases but a year-over-year decline.

Given that the unified enterprise network edge was gaining market traction and new applications for the Internet of Things were continuing to emerge, Petr Jirovský, research manager in networking trackers    group, predicted a bright future for Gigabit Ethernet. However, he cautioned vendors to keep in mind the uneven growth levels while strategizing.