Are we going to have trouble with competition from Intel? They say they aren't going after Cisco's business, but perhaps they'll try for Osicom's.
Of course, a good way for them to quickly grow a presence would be to acquire FIBR...
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Intel Corp. on Tuesday unveiled a range of networking products and strategies in an aggressive expansion of its fast-growing computer networking business, including plans for products to link up home PCs.
The semiconductor giant unveiled a major push to grow its estimated $800 million networking group, with products aimed at specific market segments, mirroring its microprocessor strategy to develop chips for a wide range of markets, from low-cost PCs to big servers and workstations.
While Intel said it is not seeking to become a company like Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of networking equipment for large corporate enterprises, it said it plans networking products for home users, small businesses and corporate users. Intel estimates that each segment makes up a third of the networking market.
"If you do the simple math, unless you are looking at all three of these regions, you are ignoring a wide part of the base," Craig Barrett, Intel's president and chief operating officer, said at a press conference.
Barrett estimates there will be one billion networked personal computers within the next decade, up from 150 million currently.
Intel has already been in the networking business for several years, starting with networking chips and eventually moved to Ethernet networking interface cards. In 1997, Intel said it launched 30 networking products and its business grew 40 percent in 1997 and is poised for similar growth this year.
"We don't pull anything out by revenue base but I'd put networking as one of the areas that will grow to multi-billion dollars," Barrett said in an interview. He declined to provide any forecasts or projections.
On Tuesday, as part of a big networking symposium Intel is hosting in San Francisco, Intel launched networking hubs, switches and routers aimed at branch offices and high-speed switches targeted to corporate campus environments.
Intel also demonstrated gigabit Ethernet products for large corporate users, but they are not yet available. Gigabit Ethernet switches and routers transmit data at speed of one gigabit (one billion bits) per-second and are 100 times faster than networks in businesses today.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based 3COM Corp., one of the leading developers of networking products, said it already has early customers now deploying its gigabit Ethernet system.
"It's going to be very difficult for Intel to have an impact on that marketplace," said Jim Jones, marketing director of Ethernet products at 3COM. "They really do not have any presence in the medium to large corporations worldwide (in networking). They need to compete against Bay (Networks), Cisco (Systems Inc.) and 3COM, who dominate that market and unless they can bring something out that is truly differential, I don't think they can have an impact."
Intel also said it formed a Home Networking Operation within Intel. An Intel executive said the company hopes to launch products for the home before the end of the year.
"We are not ready to announce what we are doing, what technologies or when we will have products," Mark Christensen, vice president of the small business and networking group at Intel, said. Home users, however, can expect products that are easy to install and easy to use, in the same vein as the small business products Intel launched last month.
While selling some of the computer industry's most arcane products -- switches and routers -- to home users may seem like a difficult task, Intel said more homes now have multiple PCs and that families and small business owners are seeing the need to connect their PCs, so they can share printers, disk drives, and other peripherals.
Intel said there are about 14 million consumers with more than one PC in their home, and the number is expected to grow to more than 30 million by the year 2000.
"It has to be easy to install, it's absolutely critical," Christensen said.
"To the extent that we are going to see multiple PCs in homes, they are something you inherently want to have connected," Mark Edelstone, a Morgan Stanley analyst said.
International Business Machines Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp., both big customers of Intel, have also talked about networking PCs in the home. In a speech at Comdex last year, Compaq CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer envisioned a future with a myriad number of PCs in every room, run by a server in the basement. |
