The market for network processors will reach $2.9 billion by 2004 according to Cahners In-Stat Group (www.instat.com). Intel is likely to be one of the leaders in the market. Motorola and IBM will be Intel's major competitors with about 15 other manufacturers involved in the market. In-Stat also found that customers would favor vendors that offer a range of products instead of ones that make more niche-oriented chips. Products supporting industry standards will win out over proprietary offerings.