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Wireless LAN Switch Market to Withstand Price Crunch in 2005, Report Finds Wireless LAN switch vendors continue to resist the commodity pricing that is destroying margins in the standalone access point market NEW YORK, Feb. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Makers of wireless LAN switches are holding the line on product prices and avoiding the intense price competition that is wreaking havoc on profit margins for makers of standalone enterprise-grade access points, finds a new report from the subscription research service Unstrung Insider (http://www.unstrung.com/insider). The Enterprise Wireless LAN Price Report provides and analyzes detailed pricing data on 37 wireless LAN switch products, 19 enterprise-grade, standalone access points, 13 appliance/gateway products, and 18 thin access points, from 19 different vendors. "The wireless switch systems market has held up reasonably well, with average order size expected to increase steadily through 2005," says the report's author, Unstrung Insider Chief Analyst Gabriel Brown. "We don't expect street prices for wireless switches to decline dramatically this year. "Orders of around $30,000 are seeing discounts of between 10 percent and 15 percent to list price, while orders worth several hundreds of thousands of dollars are seeing discounts of 30 percent to 35 percent," adds Brown. "It's not a fire-sale situation." Among the report's key findings: * Street prices for wireless LAN switch systems range between $600 and $800 per access point deployed, representing a substantial premium over standalone AP networks. * Enterprise-grade access points now have an average list price of under $700 (vs. $840 six months ago). Street prices for these products have dropped to the $400 range, putting enormous pressure on supplier and reseller margins. * Standalone access points are already "commodities"; expect prices to plummet further. * Security appliance vendors have been driven out of town, squeezed by switch vendors and low-cost newcomers. Vendors covered in this report: 3Com Corp. (NASDAQ:COMS); Airespace Inc.; Aruba Wireless Networks; Bluesocket Inc.; Chantry Networks Inc.; Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO); Colubris Networks Inc.; Cranite Systems Inc.; Enterasys Networks Inc. (NYSE:ETS); Extreme Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:EXTR); Fortress Technologies Inc.; Foundry Networks Inc. (NASDAQ:FDRY); Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE:HPQ); Meru Networks Inc.; Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT); Proxim Corp. (NASDAQ:PROX); SonicWall Inc. (NASDAQ:SNWL); Symbol Technologies Inc. (NYSE:SBL); and Trapeze Networks Inc. The Enterprise Wireless LAN Price Report is available as part of an annual subscription (12 monthly issues) to Unstrung Insider, priced at $1,350. Individual reports are available for $900. To subscribe, please visit: http://www.unstrung.com/insider. For additional information, to request a free executive summary of the report, or for details of multi-user licensing options, please contact: Jeff Claudino Sales Manager Insider Research Services 619-229-9940 For press inquiries, please contact: Gabriel Brown Chief Analyst Insider Research Services 44-20-7701-9330 DATASOURCE: Unstrung Insider CONTACT: Jeff Claudino, Sales Manager, +1-619-229-9940, , or Press - Gabriel Brown, Chief Analyst, +44-20-7701-9330, , both of Insider Research Services Web site: http://www.unstrung.com/insider

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