Comments on: This is not your father's Cisco

Networking-equipment giant continues to expand its product line into such things as home audio, but in the process, it risks losing a unified corporate mission.

[neogg]

Hi Matt, I believe this is a natural progression for Cisco as it is already a very diverse company with Networking, Storage, Software applications, Unified Communications, Virtualization, and many other areas.

This is no different than Apple starting as a computer hardware + OS vendor and branching out toother diverse product lines such as the IPod, IPhone, Itunes, Apple TV......

I believe that it is imperative for Cisco to be relevant to everyday people and Cisco brand through it's consumer focus. In the past, only IT professionals really understood the Cisco Products and business.

From my observation at the Cisco CES press conference, the home audio system is just one piece of a network based platform solutions architecture. Note, that another component of the solution is the Entertainment Operating System (EOS) platform for content delivery.

I don't believe that brand dilution is risk, but rather the opposite. The consumer strategy should bring relevance to the general public who watch the TV commercials, but still wonder how Cisco relates to them.

[fazalmajid]

I don't understand why journalists make a big deal of computer companies such as Apple, Gateway or now Cisco entering consumer electronics. It seems like another case of the tail wagging the dog - consumer electronics is a puny business compared to IT - the market cap of Cisco, Apple or HP dwarf that of Sony (and the latter does far more than just consumer electronics).

[mattglass]

if Cisco kept the same mentality that you are indirectly recommended, they would have gone the way of the dinosaurs - this is a smart, natural evolution for companies that want to maintain their leadership position.