http://www.latimes.com/HOME/BUSINESS/t000001672.html
A friend of mine recently told me Cisco has no consumer brand name
recognition. I expect a MAJOR marketing push from them in the next few
years to build the brand name equity that Intel currently enjoys...
> Cisco to Enter Home Market
> By Leslie Helm, LA Times Staff Writer, January 7, 1999
>
> Telecom: It will start with a TV cable modem that provides simultaneous
> phone and Net connections
>
> Cisco Systems, the leading provider of equipment used by businesses to
> build Internet-based networks, will announce today a major new push into
> the home.
>
> Debuting the first in its new line of home products, Cisco will
> unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a device that, when
> connected to a regular television cable, provides two phone connections
> and four high-speed Internet connections simultaneously.
>
> In a related matter, San Jose-based Cisco also will announce today
> a preliminary agreement with AT&T Corp. on a nearly $100-million
> contract to help AT&T build an infrastructure capable of delivering
> voice, video and telephone services over cable TV lines. AT&T is close
> to acquiring an extensive cable network through a merger with cable
> giant Tele-Communications Inc.
>
> "Today, you get cable TV, long-distance phone service, local phone
> service and Internet access from four different providers," said Robba
> Benjamin, general manager of Cisco's newly created Consumer Line of
> Business. "This [technology] will enable AT&T to offer all four on one
> bill."
>
> Cisco's new device, the cable modem, will be the first to offer
> regular voice connections. It will sell for about $1,000 and is aimed at
> home offices. But Cisco is also licensing its technology to consumer
> electronics companies such as Sony, Hitachi and Samsung, which plan to
> offer similar products for the consumer market later this year.
>
> Cisco believes that over time, Internet service, cable TV providers
> and others will offer telephone services to their customers as a free
> add-on to their basic services.
>
> As part of its consumer strategy, Cisco plans to work with a broad
> range of partners to create a new "personalized network" that will make
> it easy to connect personal computers, televisions, phones and other
> appliances to one another and to the Internet.
>
> "This is Cisco landing on the beach," said Gary Arlen, president of
> Bethesda, Md.-based Arlen Communications, a research firm. "Home
> automation has been around for 15 years, but it hasn't gone anywhere.
> Cisco makes the whole thing credible."
>
> Cisco said it is pulling together a team of partners to make the
> technology happen. One set of Cisco partners, for example, will provide
> the technology to connect various Internet devices in the home using
> wireless, electric or phone lines. Others will produce Internet-capable
> phones and other Internet appliances. Each device will include Cisco
> software and carry a "Cisco NetWorks" logo similar to Intel's famous
> "Intel Inside" logo.
>
> "Cisco is really moving into the consumer market," said Mark
> Stubbe, a vice president at Samsung Telecommunications America, a South
> Korea-based firm that plans to market a variety of Internet appliances
> that carry the Cisco brand. "By working with them, we can get to market
> a lot faster than if we worked separately," Stubbe says.
>
> Analysts say Cisco may have a tough time building a consumer market
> for cable modems and other high-speed Internet access devices because
> the technology is still new and all the kinks have not been worked out.
----
adam@cs.caltech.edu
What's great about this country is that America started the tradition
where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the
poorest.
-- Andy Warhol