I'm better than you are, ner, ner.....

Seems like a good reason to look at Brocade, then. If Q Logic and Emulex are trying to out do each other by adding more too rapidly, then maybe the little guy is being cautious and producing a stable product that does what you need it too, for less. Just a thought.

Infonetics Comment

Sent to me by Michael Howard of Infonetics:-

We gave repeated opportunities to Qlogic to comment on our adapter estimates--they did comment on our switch estimates, which they indicated were accurate btw. We have many sources in the industry to triangulate each manufacturer's revenues/ports shipped. While these methods are not as accurate as getting direct feedback from the manufacturer, we believe we are in the right ballpark. We do have Qlogic higher than the $3-4M number you mention in your email below, btw. What is in question in Qlogic's eyes, then, is their estimate of Emulex shipments, not our estimates. We got direct feedback from all the players we reported except Qlogic for adapters.

Since 2009 was the first year of any reasonable shipments of FCoE CNAs, a company that gets out of the blocks quickly and with the right partnerships can gain an early market advantage. It is very possible that Qlogic position can change their position in 2010 as the market matures.

We wrote in our report:

"The FCoE CNA market got seriously underway in 2009, and, as in other early markets, first to market advantages can be gained. This is the case for Emulex, who gained #1 FCoE CNA market share in 2009 at 57%, while QLogic took xx%.

We expect market share position changes over the next 2 years, because early markets behave this way, and we expect several new entrants. Because 10GE is just solidly getting going in DCs, and because several 10GE chipsets will soon be in the market that integrate all the pertinent LAN/SAN protocols, including DCB, iSCSI, and FCoE, we see the potential for a few 10GE server adapter companies, such as Intel, to pick up share."

We continue to work with Qlogic, and hope to get their cooperation to comment not only on switch revenues/ports, but also on adapters. In most market segments we cover, we have conversations with nearly all significant players each quarter, so this is a bit unusual for us.

I hope this helps.

........................

Chris.

A second note from Infonetics

Sent by Infonetic's Michael Howard:-

I wonder how Qlogic can say our final estimates, which they did not comment on, are wrong. They do not have our report. They did comment to us that our early CNA estimates were not right, but we did a lot of research, and think we came up later with reasonably accurate revenue estimates for Qlogic CNAs--these they did not comment on. It appears that Qlogic is underestimating the Emulex numbers we reported, and therefore think our Qlogic estimates are off. Again, I refer you to my email below.

It bothers me that the story implies that our research may be flaky, when the whole story is not told. We spent months working with all the significant players in the market to gather, sanitize, and make accurate our quarter-by-quarter 2008-2009 history of the SAN switch and SAN adapter markets starting from 1Q08. We have a great track record of producing accurate market shares in coverage areas crossing most of telecom and datacom --we have over 200 customers among telecom and datacom equipment manufacturers, the investment community, chip/component vendors, and service providers in the major regions of the world. These companies trust our work and use our market share and forecasts in their businesses. We do not take our work lightly. Most players in the industry know this, and willingly cooperated so that we could have an accurate report.

............................

Chris.