optics pricing (Re: Weird GigE Media Converter Behavior)

Mon Aug 30 17:38:48 UTC 2004

Deepak Jain wrote:
> One could argue that this public & private chaffing is what
> precipitates the competition that alleviates the condition. If
> another vendor doesn't realize there is demand...

Competition & capitalism are great in my book. My personal worry about this 
kind of overpricing is when it is combined with legal muscle power (via 
patents et al.) to prevent _fair_ competition. Cisco do not appear to be 
trying that in the hardware area, or at least that's how it looks from the 
outside - as someone who has never ever bought a single cisco product in 
over 10 years of being here.

On the other hand, the use of patent licenses (like those that say "free if 
you don't claim against us") for things like VRRP do worry me.

rgds,
--
Peter 