Netgear 2003 Annual Report Download - page 14

Innovation and speed are in our blood. Since Mark Merrill
and I first founded NETGEAR in 1996 to meet the networking
needs of consumers and small-to-medium businesses, innova-
tion and speed have been the cornerstones of our growth.
From the first unmanaged 10/100 hubs and switches which we
developed to NETGEAR’s new Gigabit Smart Switches that
deliver key network management features... from the first
home network based on in-home telephone wiring to the
industry’s first Super G 108 Mbps wireless solution offering
superior range and speed... and from the industry’s first home
broadband router to the first available ADSL2/ADSL+ gateway,
NETGEAR continues to deliver innovations to the market ahead
of the competition.
The entire 200-plus-employee team of NETGEAR is continu-
ing to drive that innovation forward now that we have reached
over $299 million in annual revenue and 48 new products
launched in 2003 alone.
Right from the start, NETGEAR was established as a global
company with key channel partners in major markets around
the world. We entered the European market back in 1997 and
NETGEAR is now one of the leading brands in home and small
business networking there. During 2003, NETGEAR capitalized
on the rapid growth in Asia through new partnerships with
the Lenovo Group (formerly Legend) in China and Softbank
in Japan. NETGEAR also achieved share gains in 2003 world-
wide, and according to Cahner’s In-Stat Group market share
reports in Q4 2003, we are either #1 or #2 in each of the major
product categories in which we compete in: Wireless LAN,
Broadband Routers and Gateways, and Unmanaged Switches.
2003 was also the year when NETGEAR collaborated more
extensively with broadband service providers around the
world, such as Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Telecom Den-
mark, and Telstra in Australia. Their success, and the success
of NETGEAR’s thousands of retail, ecommerce, direct market
resellers (DMR), and value added reseller (VAR) partners world-
wide, led to year-over-year net revenue growth of 26% in
2003, a trend of rapid growth since the company was first
founded.
And while other companies set goals in 2003 to increase
productivity and improve cost structures, NETGEAR continued
to deliver as it has from the beginning. With revenue per
employee of over $1.6 million per year, NETGEAR employees
were two to three times more productive in 2003 than even
the stretch goals yet to be achieved by other industry leading
companies. It’s this dedication and productivity from the
NETGEAR team, combined with an efficient operating model
built on a network of subcontract manufacturing and engi-
neering partners in Asia and R&D partners in the Silicon
Valley and throughout North America, that enable the com-
pany to deliver high-quality yet affordable products while
increasing both margins and profits.
The NETGEAR brand has always stood for quality, but it was
in 2003 that NETGEAR truly became known around the world
for ease-of-use, reliability, performance and value. During the
year, NETGEAR became the only company to have been recog-
nized as the best in the networking industry for reliability
and service from both PC World and PC Magazine readers in
the US. In review after review, NETGEAR products and partner
programs outpaced the competition, earning Editor’s Choice
awards from leading publications.
This breakthrough year also opened up a new chapter in the
company’s history, with the successful completion of NETGEAR’s
A Letter from Patrick
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