Competitive Barriers.
Happy Sunday afternoon, UF -
"I think you're trying to make a point in your discussion with Bird Dog"
UF, I've been making the same point, in various ways, for quite awhile.
You can look back over my posts - it should be fairly easy, since I don't post a whole lot.
To give you a high-level summary:
1)Despite what the talking heads on CNBC say, business conditions are awful. IT spending has screeched to a (virtual) halt. Worse, there are no expectations that these conditions will change anytime in the foreseeable future.
2) Storage is an area that EVERYONE has identified as being critical to the future of Information Technology. As a result, there are MANY players taking aim. From "above", the big players have better resources than NetApp, and will use them to their ruthless advantage to gain sales, even if their products are not as good in all areas. From "below", there are any number of startups all desperate for business - any business.
3) Due to the above two points, ALL players will be under incredible pricing pressure.
4) NetApp has some excellent products, but the they aren't doing business in a vacuum, and the competitors are duplicating those features as fast as they can (please refer to my comments about Snapshot as one example).
To summarize even further, I don't belive that the future for NetApp is as bright as in years past, despite the fact that I share their vision of the future of storage. I just don't think those visions are all that unique anymore. Please note - I'm NOT saying they're doomed or anything like that - just that they're not going to be the "gorilla" (in your parlance) that some folks thought they might be.
Regarding "faith" - I'd suggest that, ESPECIALLY in technology, "due diligence" is an action that must be constantly exercised, not performed and put in a file folder (virtual or otherwise) somewhere. 2002 is not 1998.
Regarding BD, please refer to my previous post to him.
Best regards,
-Steve |
