Report details rise and rise of PoE

A new report estimates the four-year compound annual growth rate for PoE-enabled power sourcing equipment will reach 33% by 2008.

Only two years have passed since the PoE standard was ratified and yet enterprises and business all over the world have been eager to adopt this new technology.

VDC's new report: "PoE: global market opportunity analysis", estimates the four-year compound annual growth rate for PoE-enabled PSE (power sourcing equipment) will reach 33% by 2008.

Today, 10% of the revenues in the Ethernet switch market are accredited to these PSE infrastructures.

The report also predicts that global revenues for PoE Powered Devices (PD) will exceed $5.2 billion in 2008, representing a 38% growth rate compounded annually.

In 2004, network Infrastructure Components made-up the majority of these revenues.

More specifically, IP telephones and WLAN access points together encompassed 87% of sales.

New vertical markets are just beginning to accommodate PoE technologies, and with the ratification of a higher power standard we can expect even more new verticals to enter the PoE space.

Some of the leading emerging markets include: security, building control, retail, entertainment, RFID and more.

The IEEE is currently working on the development of PoE Plus.

This latest specification defines a higher power standard that will enable more powered devices to support PoE capabilities.

VDC screened over 40 applications from various vertical markets to identify the application types and markets most likely to adopt PoE and PoE Plus.

Applications such as PoE thermostats and smoke detectors scored highly in the screening model because they had large potential in reducing the associated installation costs.

The market for building control devices is very large but currently very few devices are PoE enabled.

Growing PoE awareness and maturity will help increase the technology's penetration in this vertical.

Many individual POS components, such as signature terminals and bar code scanners, can fully function under the current PoE specifications.

However consolidating all the PoS devices under one power line requires a higher power standard.

A ratified higher power standard can incite retail and restaurant facilities to adopt PoE, as the technology can enable high availability for the PoS components, and can minimise the hassles and clutter associated with abundant cabling.

Screening model results showed the primary beneficiaries of a higher power standard would be pan-tilt-zoom cameras, electronic kiosks and laptops, which all require 25-45W to fully function.

Audio equipment was another product category that VDC determined could reap the benefits of a higher-powered standard, and could potentially trigger the catalyst that drives PoE into the entertainment market.

"Power over Ethernet is a remarkable technology that intertwines many diverse applications and markets", says VDC analyst Spyros Photopoulos.

"Enterprises are purchasing UPS and power supplies to power and back up their PoE-enabled switches that ultimately feed the power to telephones, cameras, access points etc".

"Suddenly, one little technology is integrating unique applications from five different markets".

Back to top