Hello...Skipper,
I followed the market share debate waged between you, Scrapps etc. the last few weeks and refrained from commenting because I can offer no new evidence of market share positions. I have read the Dataquest
numbers for remote access share percentages and frankly, I don't understand what they mean by "remote access server".
My experience tells me that USRX DOMINATES most ISP/internet dial up ports. At one Seattle POP, AOL/ANS has 1200 modems alone. These
numbers have been growing. Most ISPs that I am aware of use USRX as
well. Up to now, this dominance has not been particularly relevant to ROK, ASND etc... as their stuff has always interoperated with USRX,
MOT, LU etc... With X2, USRX IMO is trying to first capture the group of companies that I will collectively call the "mega ISP". If they are successful, IMO almost everything else becomes moot. PC
manufacturers will need to bundle USRX on the client side. As that
snowball begins rolling, I think it is POSSIBLE that companies may
demand X2 technology (not necessarily made by USRX) in the remote
access product like those made by ASND. In this scenario, "comporable to X2" will be A LOT different than "compatible with X2".
Good companies that are customer driven (of which ASND is one) will
survive and prosper by providing whatever the market wants. USRX will
have to play by these rules as well.
Cheers,
Daniel
PS: The scenarios I am imagining are predicated on my belief that X2 dial up modems in ISP's Total Control Hub are able to "step down" and talk to legacy modems from Hayes, Zoom etc at 14.4, 28.8 etc. Now that I think about it, I am not certain that this is true but I would be surprised if it is not. |
