Cisco's grip on networking market keeps prices high, rivals out
zdnet.com
saw this on the intel thread:
To: Paul Engel (74273 )
From: stephen karasick Monday, Feb 22 1999 5:38PM ET
Reply # of 74275
Why I own CSCO,too...................King of the jungle
By Lisa DiCarlo
02/19/99 05:09:00 PM
Cisco's grip on the networking market
keeps prices high, rivals out
In a 20th-floor hotel boardroom overlooking San Jose, Calif., top
executives at Alteon Networks Inc. are huddled in an all-day strategy
session. A key discussion topic: staying out of Cisco Systems Inc.'s way.
The 3-year-old networking startup doesn't even compete head-on with
Cisco. So why do its executives fear being steamrolled?
"Because Cisco is the IBM of the current decade," said Dominic Orr,
Alteon's CEO. "Even if Cisco has an inferior solution, customers
perceive them as less risky, and [Cisco] is adamant about [maintaining]
architectural control."
Such is the current state of affairs in the data networking business.
Since installing its first routers in customer sites in the mid-1980s,
Cisco has risen to a dominance rivaled only by Microsoft Corp. and Intel
Corp. among computing powerhouses.
Thanks to a combination of proprietary technologies, savvy marketing
and what one analyst describes as an "insane" focus on its customers,
the San Jose company has assumed the 800-pound gorilla role in the
market for routers and switches, which help form the backbone of the
Internet.
"Without Cisco, there would be no Internet," said Stephen Koffler, an
analyst with New York-based Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc. |
