Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 08 January 2008 07:30
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
New set-top boxes from Cisco's Scientific Atlanta business unit will be the first to be branded Cisco. Cisco has also released a new IP Home Gateway under the Cisco brand, a move that will inevitably re-ignite speculation that the Linksys brand under which Cisco has to date targeted the home and SOHO networking market is on the way out.
The company was last July
forced to deny that such a move was planned when comments made by CEO John Chambers to a media roundtable were videoed and
posted onto YouTube .
In response to a questions at the roundtable, Chambers said: "[Linksys] will come over time into a Cisco brand. The reason we kept Linksys' brand because it was better known in the US than even Cisco was for the consumer. As you go globally there's very little advantage in that."
Cisco responded to the ensuing speculation with a
posting on the official Cisco blog site saying: "Linksys consumer and SMB products will continue to be marketed under the Linksys brand and co-exist in the market with Cisco branded connected home products over the near term. We will continue to examine our branding strategy going forward (as we have to date) and make changes if and when these changes add value to our customers' decision-making processes and our channel partners."
The Cisco-branded IP home gateway (Model DRG2800), announced at CES 2008 in Las Vegas, is designed to bring network-based and home-based applications together in one device. It enables consumers to use their set-top and large-screen, flat-panel televisions to watch videos, listen to downloaded music in surround sound, and view photos accessed from their PC.
It is claimed to be capable of managing and delivering a variety of services including high-speed Internet, wired and wireless home networking, file and data storage (including video and music) from its 160GB hard drive, and voice/telephone service.
Meanwhile, for the time being at least the Linksys brand remains strong with a swag of new products announced at CES 2008, including some whose functions have substantial overlap with the Cisco Home Gateway.
