Wireless Networking 

Cisco is the winner for the second year running, with D-Link at second position and 3Com at third. Avaya-Lucent moves one spot up to fourth place, replacing Nortel, who did not make the grade this year. 

Here, players placed second onwards have improved their indexed score over last year. Perhaps this is because the market is still very nascent and growing. On the other hand, brand loyalties have come down. Users are still in an experimental phase and are yet to settle down with brands of their choice. These two factors can combine to upset the market in the coming year or two.

Starting with brand switch from the 'Others' brands, of the ones that did not make it to the Club, 35 percent would go for Cisco if they had to make the choice again, and 20 percent for D-Link. On the other extreme, 11 percent of Avaya users would opt for some other brand. Twenty five percent of 3Com users would move to Cisco. For Avaya, too, 11 percent would move to Cisco. D-Link would have 11 percent move to 3Com and 24 percent to Cisco. 

Compared to last year, Cisco has been able to cut its losses to D-Link, while it has improved its gains from D-Link. This could lead one to think that Cisco is consolidating its position in the market. But as I pointed out earlier, users appear to be in an experimental mode still. 

We do not have enough data to make this statement categorically, but there seem to be developing two different markets within this segment, one comprising Cisco, 3Com and Avaya, with Cisco being the dominant player, and the other with D-Link and the other smaller brands, with D-Link being the dominant player. If this hypothesis is true, then it is similar to what is happening in another segment-structured cabling, where D-Link is a strong player.

2003