Cabletron makes first moves in low-end market

Cabletron Systems has entered the low-end market for the first time after launching a range of low-cost Ethernet Lan switches.

Known as Smartstack, the switches are aimed at the small to medium-sized customer. The products will see Cabletron pitched against 3Com, Bay Networks and Cisco Systems for the first time in this sector of the market.

Chris Gabriel, product marketing manager at Cabletron, said as a result of the success of its channel sales in both Europe and the US ? particularly in the mid range ? the company wanted to give Vars access to a full product range.

?This is a newish departure for Cabletron as we have launched product for our two-tier channel,? he said.

But he conceded that most of the company?s revenue would continue to come from high and mid-range product. Gabriel claimed that Cabletron had no interest in selling the low-end products direct unless it was approached by a large corporate customer.

Cabletron entered the channel recently and set up distribution contracts with Persona and Data Translation.

The company will launch additional products every three months with a 10/100 Ethernet switch planned for release in October and a 10/100 with gigabit by the end of the year.