Blue-light specials?

When demand softens, vendors are supposed to cut prices to boost sales, right?

And those collapsing Asian economies have sent exports of computing technology plummeting. But unlike in the PC market, where prices for home computers continue to fall, don't expect bargains anytime soon in high-end networking gear (ATM switches, gigabit routers and the like).

Overall, we have not seen a massive price-cutting wave on the part of networking technology providers (beyond the standard cost reduction cycles). Some of this might be due to the fact that many of the larger networking firms have already been steadily working for the past 12 to 18 months to reduce or control their inventory levels. Or perhaps the vendors are trying to keep their margins up even at the risk of losing sales - on the theory that it is easier to explain softness in sales during a worldwide shakeout than it is to defend dropping margins.

Or perhaps it is because, unlike PCs, networking products are still quite far away from being commodity products where you mix and match and not really worry too much whose name is on the box. Add to that the fact that many users are now locked into expensive systems from specific vendors (swapping out routers or management platforms is not something you do lightly). For all the talk of open standards, networking today, from network management to VLANs, is still very much dominated by proprietary vendor solutions.

This means that finding the bargains might be tougher than it would otherwise appear. So concentrate on other areas that could mean savings over the long run: enhanced upgrade plans, increased installation and technical support, increased access to "early release" product or to internal development groups for product/feature customization. While these areas may not have the same satisfying feel as an extra 10% discount on your initial purchase, they will likely prove to be just as valuable over time.

Looking back to our prior column on the issue of stock ownership, there were several interesting replies from our readership. Most echoed the same basic theme; they think there should be some control based on their past "experiences" with this matter - some of which were as basic as knowing about employees that had large holdings in "conflict" companies while others were as extreme as being directed by their management to only select equipment suppliers that were part of their managers own personal portfolios. In general, however, the feedback seemed to be more about past history than present events - and that is good news for us all.