As expected, Cisco Systems leads the enterprise-router market with 67 percent of total revenue and 8 percent of units sold. (Cisco controls the high end of the market.) "End users and the channel are looking for alternatives to Cisco . . . to shake up the market. That could help pricing," said Osipuk. "Cisco's near monopoly of the enterprise-router market has enabled them to dictate prices, but vendors entering and re-entering the market will likely launch a price war, which will give end-users and the channel the alternative they've been looking for. These dynamics will shake up market-share distribution over the next 12 to 15 months."
Osipuk said the recent decision by Juniper Networks to acquire NetScreen Technologies should help to inject more competition into the router marketplace, noting that NetScreen is strong in security and in VPN areas. NetScreen has a strong presence in the enterprise market with its longtime focus on corporations and on the edge of corporate networks. NetScreen has provided products with firewalls and filters designed to stop viruses, worms, and other hacker creations. Juniper has tended more to address the Internet service provider (ISP) and telecommunications service provider markets.
Cisco's position in the low end of the router market is reversed by its ownership of Linksys, which has a 45 percent market share and 8 percent revenue share in the router market, according to the Infonetics report.
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