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Cisco says yes to Video
Am I the only one to feel sad at the loss of the Scientific Atlanta brand to the trash can of mergers and acquisitions. Started by engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1951, the SA produces industry leading broadcasting cable and Internet distribution and set top boxes. In Europe in particular the SA brand was considered the industry standard to which others sought to reach. In 2006 SA was bought by Cisco (another firm started by academic engineers) and at last weeks CES the first box without a SA sticker appeared, bearing the Cisco brand.
The box was a media gateway designed to bring network-based and home-based applications together in one device, all part of what Cisco calls visual networking. CEO John Chambers is energetically rebuilding Cisco around IP systems and video is in front and center of the Cisco strategy. Chambers calls Internet video the "next disruptive technology" and Cisco last week released an operating system called EOS designed for rich media management. The contrast with Qwest could not be starker.
For more:
- Goodbye Scientific Atlanta Article
- Cisco drops Scientific Atlanta Article
Related Article:
-Cisco prepares for video ArticleÂ
Comments
Posted by Prabhat Kumar | January 16, 2008 - 12:08am
Apart from loosing the SA brand name, Cisco push for the IP Video is the right strategy. I don't know whether I will call it a "disruptive technology". What Cisco is really betting on is the future of communications and media/content distribution anywhere and on any device. The challenge will be to provide the similar/common experience of watching the video on big screen TV in the living room vs on the "LCD screen of laptop" in the bedroom or on "mobile handset". The information hungry consumers/business professionals want to get everything instantly on the device they have access to at that instant. Of course no one knows how much they are willing to pay yet. I guess it depends if I am a Hedge Fund manager then I am ready to pay any price to get the right trend for chip stocks (as an example). The interesting thing is that it is happening now and in front of cable MSOs strong hold - the video/content broadcast. No wonder why every cable MSO leader is focused on HD TV and home video market. Competitive battle is going to get even tougher among the IPTV service providers, Satellite service providers and cable MSOs. The mobile video content and TV applications with ad bundles will make it even more fierce. The business models are in the makings though!!! The key to success will depend upon the "Execution" strategy of service providers - who has end-to-end reliable and scalable platform. There is an old saying "if you can figure out a way to sell a solution/product, you can make them in due course of time".
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