This IDC study (which is a translation of the Japanese report IDC #J6050103) analyzes the LAN switch market in Japan in 2005 and shows the forecast from 2006 to 2010. The end-user revenue of the LAN switch market in Japan in 2005 totaled 173.653 billion yen, marking the year-on-year growth of -5.2%. By vendor, Cisco Systems retained the top share. IDC forecasts that the 2006-2010 Japan LAN switch market CAGR at 1.0% based on revenue.

"The vendors in the Japanese LAN switch market are facing the challenge of how to gain market share while struggling the decreasing price and the need to differentiate products. In order to overcome such problem, it is important to increase the port shipments to counter the decrease in unit port price or to move to a less competitive market in order to get out from the cycle of price decrease," observes Kenichi Kusano, analyst, Network Equipment, IDC Japan.