This IDC study discusses power over Ethernet (PoE) technology, the market landscape today, and where power over Ethernet is headed in the coming years. In addition, the document contains preliminary 2004 Western European PoE-enabled LAN switch port shipment market shares and IDC's forecast for 2005?2009 for both PoE port shipments and PoE price premiums.

A geographical split is included for Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

"The demand for power over Ethernet-enabled LAN switches is really taking off in Western Europe and as a result IDC expects it will become a standard feature on LAN switches in the next couple of years," said Peter Hulleman, senior research analyst in the European Telecommunications and Networking team.