Cisco Plans Its Home Invasion

theodp writes "Despite lots of scars from earlier consumer craziness which included an Internet-connected fridge, Newsweek reports Cisco has set its sights on your living room, including videoconferencing which would let CEO John Chambers watch his beloved Duke basketball with far-away relatives. While recent acquisitions of Linksys and Scientific Atlanta make Cisco the only company that can come in on top of technology that's already inside homes, some skeptics say speaking to the consumer is simply not in Cisco's genes."

Comments

CEO != the general public

[AubieTurtle]

Just because the CEO thinks something is cool doesn't mean the general public will. I've used all kinds of high end video conferencing systems and none of them come anywhere close to replicating the experience of being in the same room with other people. And that's in a business setting. The difference between being together and being hooked up on video conference would be even greater for social situations. Throw in the lesser quality that they're going to have to go with for a home system over a business system for cost reasons and things look really dim. Which isn't to say there would be any market, just that the experience is not likely to be compelling enough to become a big seller.

Re:CEO != the general public

[AubieTurtle]

Well, this is Slashdot, not Fark...

Control?

[Homology]

Consumers will exert as much control over their TVs as they now have over their Web browsers, ordering from a limitless menu of programming. With a few clicks of the remote control, viewers will be able not only to watch old movie classics, but to open video and audio connections to far-flung family members, so they can view shows (say, Duke basketball) and talk to each other as though they were all sitting in the same room.

The dude writing the article should not should not just copy/paste something produced by Cisco market department. The remote controll as it is today is quite simply not suited for this expanded functionality, and I like my remote control to be small and not a big keyboard.

First they should know what they're talking about

[robthebob]

From TFA (1)

audio, video and data technology requires a new type of wiring called "category 5," which has five strands within one sheath.

Wrong....

Having Friends Over

[highwaytohell]

Are Cisco intent on stopping all social interaction of any kind? If i want to watch the football and ogle the cheerleaders with some friends, i generally invite them over to the house, light up a barbecue and get beer out of the fridge. Cisco possibly suspect that we are all germophobes who hate leaving the confines of our house or interacting with humanity of any kind. Humanity may be evolving, but there is still that caveman/woman in us that needs to have our own social groups and interact with them. Half of the human language is based on physical presence, and this just takes all of that away. John Chambers must be living in some deluded Lawnmower Man fantasy land.

Consumers will have control???

[unitron]

"Consumers will exert as much control over their TVs ..." et cetera blah, blah, blah.

The only way consumers will have any control is if Cisco-SA-Linksys stay the hell out of the content business and have enough money and clout to tell the content business to get stuffed.

Otherwise it's Sony all over again. The consumer isn't seen as the real customer.

Linksys is a recent aquisition

[9mm Censor]

"While recent acquisitions of Linksys..." 3 years ago.

Oh Dear....

[segedunum]

Microsoft, Intel, AMD and now Cisco all have this strange belief (mostly via their idiot CEOs) that they're going to make this triumphant entry into peoples' living rooms. I'm afraid they are PC software and hardware companies, and nothing more. They just don't have what it takes in the same way as Apple, LG and other consumer electronics companies do.

There's also the issue of the use OF DRM, and the paradox that the only way you can make a digital home is to make content flow like water i.e. it's free (like peoples' MP3 collections today) or ridiculously cheap. There's no way that's going to happen legitimately.

There's also the issue that the average home user can't afford a home network, a central Windows Media server or ridiculously expensive Cisco equpment.

These silly PC companies are all pissing patterns in the snow.

welcome to our cisco overlords

[aggles]

The home networking scene is a mess! There are overlapping wireless frequencies everywhere and plenty of security holes. Linksys has done well, but so much more is possible. How about for starters; whole-property roaming coverage, media server hooked to my stereo, backup storage, a bot system to handle my chores, multi-channel video capture, an inbound VPN listener for access into my home network while out and about, and a personal Web server. I welcome cisco into my home if it can give me these things - and it can. However, I am a consumer and demand much from my sources of technology - including transparency.

Must change their branding.

[RunFatBoy.net]

Cisco obviously has the technology, it's the marketing that needs to change. I guarantee that my mother would have trouble identifying Cisco's core technology and even if she knew of their domain, would have trouble identifying them as a brand she should look for at Best Buy. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/

Game blackout areas

[Not_Wiggins]

I know it is just a nit-pick, but using the example of video conferencing with friends that are so far away made me think about game broadcast blackout areas. I mean, how can I watch a football game with friends across the country if they're not "allowed" to watch the game anyway?

Or, more to the point... will the NFL/MPAA/[insert anti-digital copying lobby] go after this device since, to get around said blackout, I could point it at my TV and share the experience with said friends?

They'd better ditch their "relicensing" scam then

[mattbee]

(previously on Slashdot...) Non-business customers won't tolerate the scam that Cisco make you go through when buying second-hand kit -- that they make sure you "relicense" the embedded software to the new owner when selling on your old kit (the software that's completely irrelevant to anything other than the hardware they sold it with). The list price of a "relicense" is usually 60-90% of the original hardware cost ... Cisco say they're only getting what's due to them but it's just rather dubious attempt at control over a legitimate after-market.

I'm not sure that the business culture that produced this kind of revenue scraping is going to know how to sell to the general public.

Take your place in the queue, mate

[FishandChips]

Jeez, it must be tough being the super-successful CEO of a super-successful company. You come up with this great idea to invade people's living-rooms - why bother to be asked in? - and then learn that you'll have to take your place in the queue. A few other guys are eager to knock the door down and start lifting Joe Sixpack's wallet: Microsoft, Apple, Intel, AMD, Sony, Samsung, AOL Time-Warner, Google, Amazon, a dozen telcos, a couple of dozen huge media combines like NI, several hundred ISPs, a clutch of VOIP outfits, Blockbuster, Hollywood, the music industry, major retail chains, and a few thousand internet fraud artists and phishing rings. One at a time boys!

I guess this is some kind of bullshit bubble. There aren't enough living-rooms to go round to service this lot even once, and when folks discover that the "living-room of the future" offers the same crap TV as today except with overpriced and murky video-conferencing, they are likely to fit a few new locks on the door and get out the big scissors when they see Mr Suit's fingers straying towards their wallet again. Me, I'm going to stay inside and watch a couple of dozen CEOs brawling and shouting on the lawn outside.

Cisco not consumer oriented

[bill_mcgonigle]

Let's see what Cisco has done with one of their product lines - the venerable WRT54G. They've taken the G, then the GS, chopped the RAM, chopped the flash, installed an OS that can't be readily enhanced (and charges a royalty), released a buggy-as-all-getout software image, and raised the price. Linksys has sold dozens of these things by making a good product in the consumer space, then Cisco [apparently] came in and screwed up the company. I've recommended hundreds of these over the past few years and that's been thoroughly squelched.

Don't get me wrong, I love a 3560 switch as much as the next guy, but their success in the technology aisle at Staples is a stinker.

Re:First they should know what they're talking abo

[TPS Report]

From TFA (1) audio, video and data technology requires a new type of wiring called "category 5," which has five strands within one sheath. Wrong....

You know, I can just see some real tech guy, testing him to see how much disinformation he can get away with, trying not to choke with laughter..

Real Tech Guy: hehe. And uh, so we have this new hightech stuff that's just out on the market, it's called "category 5" cable. They uhm, they call it that because it's like hurricanes. Like, a category 5 hurricane is super powerful. So the network manufacturers stole that idea, and a category 5 cable is super powerful. Like a hurricane.
Brad Stone: huh. thats so cool.
Real Tech Guy: And uh, (choking sounds, as he tries not to laugh) uhmm, what else. So anyway, Cisco, they --
Brad Stone: Sysco?
Real Tech Guy: ... yeah. Yeah, Sysco. I think you Americans spell it "Cisco" here, but anyway .. heh.. uh, so Sisco, besides making good food products, they decided to diversify into electronics. They make these things called Internet Routing Components.
Brad Stone: Mmmhm. I've heard of that.
Real Tech Guy: You can just call them "IRC" for short. hehehe. hhehehe... ... and uh, well anyway. I think that's enough for your first article. Let me know how it turns out!
Brad Stone: Thanks man! I'm gonna write all this up right now!