The bottom line of IDB article
"The price cuts ... remain a wild card", IDC's Baldwin said. "They can't be engaging in these ridiculous wars. Otherwise, I see clear sailing ahead for Ascend in 1998".
"This year will be key for Cisco in terms of market share, to show they can gain in the carrier market", said Kiran Narsu, an analyst with Giga Information Group in Cambridge, Mass.
"The much smaller Ascend,, though might be able to keep Cisco blocked".
"If anything, Ascend has already hit their low", said Tam Dell'Oro, principal market researcher. They are getting stronger".
"Ascend has pulled ahead of Cisco in remote access, says Dataquest. Ascend's market share rose to 27,4% in 1997 from 11.2% in '95. Dataquest says Cisco's rose to 18.1% from 11.1%. Ascned the leader because of its dominance among big customers.
"Cisco is a very big company, and they have tremendous installed base", Dell'Oro said. "But if you look at what AScend did in 1997, they gave product away to keep hold of their accounts. That goes a long way. I think they probably bought a goodwill".
"Several analysts give Ascend/Cascade merger high marks. It's dominant Frame Relay has more than one-fouth of the market share and has more than doubled its '95 share."
"Ascend plans to release a spate of new products in its remote-access stronghold this year".
According to Ascend's CEO Ejabet, Ascend plans to appeal to the market with its new Gx550 ATM core switch. This is scheduled to be released before April, and will be Ascend's key product. The new product which costs, $100,000 to 700,000 could help Ascend recover, analyst say.
Narotham |
