Comment by williamDafoe

My manager David Redell represented Xerox. He complained bitterly that 10 megabits per second was needlessly fast (3 mbps was enough!) and it's true that it greatly slowed adoption - only super mini computers and above got full ethernet initially! However it was the right choice for analog repeaters and to enable large flat networks (few routers) and 10 mbps made ethernet a premium system for those who had the bucks, setting it up for eventual cost reduction (thinwire, 10BT) and long-term success!