End of an Era: OEM Dominance - Could it be a Thing of the Past?

CIRENCESTER, England, September 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Latest study suggests that tighter margins and greater competition to transform network connectivity as customers put quality and price over brand  

ProLabs, the leading independent provider of global optical network infrastructure products, announced today the findings of their survey conducted at the 2014 European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) with top optical communications professionals from across the globe.

"The study reveals that the decades long dominance of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) may be at a crossroads," said Nick Moglia, CEO of ProLabs.  "It is yet another sign of a trend we have been seeing in recent years where the optical products market is maturing and customers are increasingly open minded about where they source their parts from.  Buyers are becoming increasingly pragmatic and are putting high quality in preference for simply 'a label'. 

"No longer, to my mind, do they feel duty-bound to a particular OEM."

The key survey findings were as follows:

• 98 per cent of respondents ranked quality as one of their top three priorities when purchasing fibre optics
• 89 per cent of respondents placed price in the top three
• Yet only 14 per cent of respondents even considered brand names to be a top three concern

This shift in customers' attitudes is driven by their concern of greater competition increasingly eating into their margins with over 61 per cent of respondents placing this concern as the primary factor keeping them awake at night.

Moglia added, "In spite of what OEM's say, optical component parts are now a commodity and not a monopoly."

Editor's Note: ProLabs survey was conducted on September 22 at the 2014 European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC) conference in Cannes, France. Respondents were event attendees including professional within the fibre optic communication technology industry. The data is based on responses from 123 respondents. It is not a scientific sampling.

About ProLabs 

ProLabsis transforming network connectivity. As a leading global independent provider of optical network infrastructure products, the company offers an extensive range of high-quality products including optical and copper transceivers, memory, cabling, media converters and solid state drives. With an unrelenting commitment to quality, service and support, ProLabs is the only mid-tier provider offering customisation and lifetime product warranties. The company's global headquarters are located in Cirencester, UK, with offices in the Netherlands, Minneapolis, MN USA and San Francisco, CA USA.  For more information, visit http://www.prolabs.com.

SOURCE ProLabs