The Linksys Group Inc now has 32.6 percent of US national retail shelf placements in the network hardware market; a 19.1 percent increase on last year, according to figures from Framingham Massachusetts based Personal Technology Research. The new statistics put the Irvine California based company ahead of the likes of 3Com Corp with 21.5 percent of the retail market and near neighbor Intel Corp with just 6.5 percent. Linksys specializes in Ethernet and Fast Ethernet adapters, hubs and switches, Universal Serial Bus hardware and SCSI adapters. Formed in 1988, the company sells to OEMs and value added resellers. In November Linksys inked a deal with MangoSoft Corporation to bundle its Network Starter Kits, Fast Ethernet Starter Kits and Network-in-a-box offerings with MangoSoft’s network file pooling software, Medley97 Small Business Edition from January 1998.
