Thoughts on the conference call:
<<Cal: Something else I'd like to add there Dale. In discussions with our major customers in the Pac Rim, the whole Asian flu thing does not seem to be a big enough deal to them, for them to stall their purchases of our type of equipment. That's not to mean it couldn't happen in the future, but at least as of this point in time, the programs that we're working on seem to have the funding required.>>
This was something which originally worried me (though no one here even batted an eye). But I think these guys are right on the money about Asia/Pacific. I've actually been doing a little research in the area and am hearing from the street that, if anything, major systems integration efforts are actually increasing in Asia.
<<Dale: That's good to see. We all know that Brocade is your major competitor here in the US. Is there anyone else coming up that poses a threat to, what seems to be (garbled) with this MarkII switch?
Ken: At the moment, the only main-line competitor at the center of the market is Brocade. We've heard rumors in the past of other companies planning to come out with a switch, but we haven't seen anything, or heard of anything that's hit the market yet.>>
Does anyone care to share their thoughts on why there are really only two competitors? Is it that the technology is just so difficult to invent/copy? Or are the major players going the Cisco route and sticking to GE (by the way, no one's commented on Cisco's GE solutions, either)? I don't write hear often, but am a major believer in Ancor's future. Still, if we assume that markets are relatively liquid, and there is an opportunity for great gain in this product segment, either Ancor's price should be 10 times what it is, there should be more competitors, or 99.99% of the investors are stupid. Maybe Ancor just means that their real competition is still originated from the traditional ethernet/ATM product vendors? |
