According to IDC, both factory revenue and unit shipments grew in the first quarter of 2012 marking the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Worldwide factory revenue was up 9.7% year over year to $1.9 billion as shipments increased 12.9% to 511,220 units.


Geographically, all regions with the exception of Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) saw double-digit growth in unit shipments. Shipments grew fastest in Central & Eastern Europe with an impressive 39.3% year-over-year increase, marking the seventh consecutive quarter with double-digit unit growth.

The United States saw the biggest year-over-year gains in factory revenue (16.2%), due to increased high-end firewall and IPS shipments in the quarter.

"The increasingly complex nature of IT security along with the growing threat landscape has the potential to affect operations and cause significant disruptions and the loss of sensitive data," said Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh, senior research analyst, Worldwide Trackers Group. "Security products are expanding rapidly into other small, fast-growing geographies where demand is greater than ever."

The combined shares of the top 5 global vendors increased to 50.7% in the first quarter of 2012. Cisco continues to lead the overall security appliance market with 18.4% share in factory revenue for the first quarter. Check Point held the number 2 spot with 12.7% share for the quarter as revenue increased 25.9% compared to the first quarter of 2011.

Juniper was the only top 5 vendor that saw share loss (0.7 points year over year) and saw a modest 0.8% year-over-year increase in revenue. McAfee and Fortinet gained roughly half a percent of market share compared to the prior year's period, as both saw strong double-digit growth.