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Network Switches/Routers

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

No enterprise IT infrastructure is complete without these two products. They're a must have for everyone. Till about two years ago, we were tracking this market for switches and routers separately. We combined it into one last year, presuming that enterprises are likely to buy both products as a solution from the same vendor for better interoperability and manageability. As far as the results go, the situation isn't any different from last year. Cisco wins in this segment by a huge margin, followed by D-Link and 3Com. There are so many other players in this field, but no one was able to muster enough points to make it to the club.

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On the brand loyalty front, Cisco continues to enjoy the highest percentage of brand loyalty, with very few of its existing owners wanting to shift to other brands. In fact, even people currently owning brands other than D-Link and 3Com seem to want to shift to Cisco. At least 17% of them opted to buy Cisco products in the future. D-Link and 3Com also need to protect their turfs from Cisco. In case of D-Link, around 17% of its existing owners said that they want to move to Cisco as their future purchase. The good news however is that D-Link managed to strengthen its brand loyalty over last year, because then, 31% of its existing customers wanted to move to Cisco. At the same time, D-Link mustn't forget that Cisco isn't the only competition. It also faces some competition from 3Com, which it didn't last year. 7% of D-Link's existing owners want to move to 3Com. 3Com on the other hand, faces a slightly lower threat from Cisco as compared to D-Link. Nevertheless, it can't afford to let its guard down as 12.5% of its existing customers said they'd like to shift to Cisco for their future purchase.

Brand

Shift (%) 2003

It has managed to consolidate its position slightly over last year, as the percentage of its owners wanting to shift to D-Link has reduced from 9% last year to around 8% this year. Cisco enjoys maximum support from down South, followed by North and then the West. It received lack luster support from the East, and if it's not a conscious decision, then it needs to spruce up its presence in that area. 3Com on the other hand, enjoyed the maximum support from the East, and it really needs to pull up its socks for the West region because surprisingly, it didn't get any votes at all from there. D-Link was also fairly strong in the East, followed by the western region. Support for its products was fairly weak from down South. Cisco got the maximum support from companies with turnover greater than 1000 crores. This doesn't come as a surprise after seeing the industry wise break-up for Cisco, because it enjoys 80% of its support from the BFSI segment. 3Com on the other hand, was fairly strong in the BPO and ITES industries. D-Link mustered up the maximum support from the services segment.

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