Our markets are highly competitive. In the telecommunications industry, we believe that our principal competitors are major manufacturers of fiber amplifiers, fiber lasers and related components. These manufacturers include Alcatel Optronics, Corning, JDS Uniphase, Lucent Microelectronics, Nortel, SDL, MPB, and Furakawa. JDS Uniphase and SDL have recently announced their agreement to merge. Our principal competitors in the industrial laser area include Coherent, SDL, Spectra-Physics and Optocom.
Most of our competitors have substantially greater financial, engineering and manufacturing resources as well as greater name recognition. Some of our customers compete with us and some may begin to compete with us. In addition, some of our customers have been or could be acquired by, or enter into strategic relations with, our competitors. We anticipate that further consolidation will occur in our industry, thereby possibly increasing competition in our target markets.
We believe the principal competitive factors of the markets in which we operate are:
. product price, features, functionality and reliability;
. performance characteristics;
. introduction of new and enhanced products before competitors;
. product line breadth;
. compliance with emerging industry trends and standards;
. service and support;
. manufacturing capacity and reliance upon outside suppliers;
. ability to respond to emerging technologies;
. brand recognition; and
. access to new customers.
We believe we compete favorably with our competitors with respect to the foregoing factors. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully in the future. |
