Cisco Systems to target consumer market

Communications equipment maker plans to sell phones, radios and home theater equipment, according to a published report.

The story "Cisco Systems to target consumer market" published January 15, 2006 at 7:45 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[zaznet]

Follow the Ipod...

This is another company following the Ipod movement. Dell has done it, as have other PC vendors. Now we are seeing companies further from the market coming to play too.

I doubt this will see a net gain any time soon for Cisco. This is just a "me too" type statement that might bring in some support from share holders anticipating Ipod type results. Reality will be a lot of investment, and that means an initial loss before arriving at the market.

[Joe Blow]

Short Cisco Stock NOW!!!

This is so typical of former high-growth companies that wind up crowding all of their competition out of their market (either by acquisition, which is Cisco's normal modus operandi, or bludgeoning out of existence, which is Microsloth's) and then start flopping around just as you would expect a gigantic fish out of water to do. The closest thing Cisco has to consumer products are the Linksys SOHO networking products, and they are nowhere near being easy enough for Joe Six-Pack (my brother-in-law) to set up correctly, much less Josephine the Plumber (my Aunt). John Chambers recently appeared on Charlie Rose, and he didn't even understand the difference between Moore's Law (microelectronics _density_ doubles about every 18 months) and microelectronics _performance_ increases (it's only been about three orders of magnitude, vs. about six orders of magnitude for density, over the last few decades). The only way that there's going to be any significant growth in networking performance for Joe Six-Pack is if the bandwidth over the infamous Last Mile undergoes another three-plus orders of magnitude increase (it's only gone up about three orders of magnitude in the last 30 years, and most of that during the last five years). Since the fiber-optics layers all went and wasted all of the available capital for the next few decades on burying cables parallel to each other (95% of which are still dark/unused), it will be a cold day in a very warm place before fiber makes it into your living/family room/den (does anyone even have a den anymore, other than foxes?).

It's possible that one of the coming wireless broadband schemes might solve the Last Mile conundrum, but not at the prices the FCC has become accustomed to collecting for RF spectrum, what with the buying orgies the cell phone services companies had been having until the capital well ran dry. We were supposed to have self-configuring 100 MBps mesh network bricks on our roofs/balconies by now that would be available at WarMart for under $100, with no additional service cost, and all schools, libraries, police, and fire departments were supposed to get them for free, subsidized by sales of the retail products. Basically, you put up a brick, it finds the closest ones to it, and it establishes network connections (yes, multiple, parallel streams) automagically. As additional bricks are put up around the periphery of a given area, they can provide connectivity to those that are added in the next outer layer. Master access points at WarMarts and other businesses with direct fiber access would provide the connection of the mesh networks to the fiber backbone (basically, any business with more than 100 phone lines (or equivalent video bandwidth) gets direct fiber access installed to their premises, now).

Forget trying to wade into netPhone handsets and digital media center hubs, Chambers. Where the hell are our $100 autoconfiguring wireless broadband mesh network bricks, not to mention our free Hovercars with mobile mesh-net brickettes, 70-inch plasma displays, and iBlobs with cradles? How does it all get paid for? You have enough to buy your very own oil company, by now. Do I have to do _all_ of your work for you, and still get nothing from your paycheck?

All the Best,
Joe Blow

[208774626618253979477959487856]

go cisco!

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