Optical Transceiver Sales Fall 20%

EUGENE, OR--(Marketwire - June 29, 2009) - The optical transceiver market contracted 20% quarter-over-quarter and 21% year-over-year, closing at $442 million in sales for Q1 2009, according to the latest Sales Report from LightCounting, the premier optical transceiver company. Decreasing demand due to the economic slowdown combined with rapid decline in average selling price (ASP) and aggressive inventory reductions were main reasons for the market contraction. The recession initially impacted Ethernet and Fibre Channel market segments in Q3 2008, since they are directly tied to corporate capital spending. Reports of increasing sales in these market segments in April and May 2009 indicate that recovery is underway. The Ethernet market remained the largest segment in sales, though total Ethernet sales declined, primarily from slow sales of 10-GigE transceivers. While early generation XPAK and XENPAK shipments plummeted, SFP+ shipments gained larger market share. The WDM market contracted in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009, due to sharply dropping sales in OC-192 tunable transponders and ASPs. Sales of FTTx modules have been least impacted, as FTTx deployments are usually long term projects partially funded by local governments.

"The end of the recession is coming, and it is time for the optical transceiver industry to plan for recovery," said Vladimir Kozlov, CEO and founder, LightCounting. "Historically, ramping up production during recovery has proven a challenge for transceiver vendors, but I'm hopeful that the industry has learned from prior mistakes."

This report details global quarterly optical transceiver sales from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009, offering detailed shipment data of more than 100 product categories in SONET/SDH, Ethernet, Fibre Channel, CWDM, DWDM, FTTx transceivers, parallel modules, active optical cables and tunable lasers.

About LightCounting

LightCounting is the premier opto-electronic transceiver market research company, offering market survey results and forecasts based on confidential, detailed data provided by more than 25 leading transceiver vendors. LightCounting's reports enable business executives, engineering, manufacturing, and sales/marketing professionals to plan business strategies using objective information rather than speculative assumptions. Providing Semiannual Transceiver Sales Reports and Market Forecast Updates with Annual State of the Industry Reports, Technology Reviews and Tradeshow Reports, LightCounting is the opto-electronic transceiver market's information source.

Privately held, LightCounting is headquartered in Eugene, Oregon, with offices in Silicon Valley. For more information: www.LightCounting.com or 408.962.4851.

To purchase LightCounting Reports, please contact Megan Andreosky, megan@lightcounting.com.