Huawei is quickly becoming a formidable challenger in both the optical and IMS markets, according to two separate research firms.
Huawei is on the verge of market leadership in the optical networking market, and may take the crown in Q3, according to Ovum.
“Given the continued strength of spending in China where Huawei is strong, favorable exchange rates, light exposure to North America, and access to capital, it’s only a matter of time before we have a new market leader,” Ovum analyst Ron Kline said.
Of the top ten optical equipment vendors only Huawei and ZTE posted both sequential and year-on-year revenue gains. The result reflects a surge of spending in China, which has disproportionally favored the local companies.
Ovum pegs Huawei's market share at 20.5%, just 0.2% away from market leader Alcatel-Lucent.
The overall optical market grew 11% sequentially to $3.9 billion, but was down 9% compared to a year ago.
Meanwhile, Huawei is closing in on Ericsson in the IMS market, Infonetics said.
“Ericsson continues to be the leading IMS vendor, but Huawei has made the most progress in terms of deployments and vendor perception,” Infonetics analyst Diane Myers said.
“Huawei poses a credible and serious threat to Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens based on the number of providers with Huawei IMS products under evaluation, and overall perception of Huawei across a broad set of criteria," she added.
More than half of service providers surveyed intend to deploy video telephony and converged fixed-mobile services over IMS over the next 12-18 months, Infonetics said.