In an unexpected courtship, Cisco Systems has announced the purchase of Pure Digital Technologies, makers of the Flip digital video camera line, for $590 million. This is the latest move by the San Jose networking company which is rapidly expanding into home electronics.

Just a few years ago the Cisco name was synonymous with big-time backbone Internet switching. The company provides the gear that major companies use when building out their networks.

That perception started to change slightly back in 2003 when Cisco bought Linksys, one of the largest makers of home networking devices like Wireless Access Points. However Cisco has continued to sell the devices under the Linksys name, adding, “by Cisco,” at the end.

Just this January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas did we start to see consumer electronics as a major focus for Cisco. At CES the company showed off a line of wireless home audio equipment.

Not only did this move bring Cisco a little further into our living rooms, it was also the company’s first major product line that was not a networking device. Even after the Linksys acquisition, Cisco was still making networking gear almost exclusively.

Now Cisco has announced the addition of Pure Digital Technologies and its serious entrance to the home electronics market. Pure Digital Technologies makes the insanely popular and Internet-ready Flip video recorder devices.

Flip video cameras have been insanely popular among the Internet elite as relatively inexpensive devices that are quite easy to use. Now Cisco has the difficult task of not only winning over this new audience, but continuing in Pure Digital Technologies’ steps of offering amazing value and usability.

It will be interesting to see how Cisco integrates the Pure Digital brand. We could be seeing Pure Digital Technologies by Cisco or a rebirth of the Cisco brand as a consumer focused brand as well as business brand.

Either way the company will need to keep innovating in order to survive in this new space. Getting the Flip camcorder in its lineup was a brilliant and bold step.

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Entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 10:07 am under Uncategorized.

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