<The big if is if it works properly. My discussions with major ISPs suggest that they would welcome any router that could increase the bandwidth and packet processing power of their network.>
IMO, it is not an "if" any more today. With IETF standard activities and the maturity of Routing protocols such as OSPF and BGP4 have paved the way for any vendor to be part of Internet. When something becomes commodity and the profit margin is very good, what can happen? very simple, small and large vendors are and will come in to share the profit. And, pretty soon, too many vendors with too many products chasing the buyers, and in no time, the router business becomes like a LAN switch mkt, that is 200$ fro an eight-port switch. We have clearly seen what intesne competition had done to the disk drive (IOM), and SEMI (ATML as an example). The price just dropped more than 75%, from 40$ to 10$. IMO, networking sector is now going through this competitive driven price-erosion mode. IMO, CSCO will really feel the price pressure when all ROuters work the same and the key competitiveness is the price and the speed. Too bad, with standardized chip sets from companies such as LU and MMC Networks, any company can design fast and furious routers in nine months. |
