Cisco is set to dump the Linksys and Scientific Alanta brand names in a move that will see the networking giant consolidate its image into the CE and SMB markets.

Cisco will soon be introducing its own brand name to the consumer space, says Daniel Scheinman, VP of Cisco’s Media Solutions Group.
He made the statement in response to a question asked after his keynote address at Wednesday’s Connections digital home conference at the new Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley.

He hinted that Cisco’s Linksys and Scientific Atlanta brand names, retained after Cisco’s acquisitions of those companies, will soon disappear. “”We are moving towards a single brand,” he said. “Consumers are increasingly important to us. There will be more value creation in that space in the next few years than we saw in the dot-com boom.”

Scheinman spoke in great detail about how Cisco has identified the “fundamentally different” digital home space as the biggest opportunity for his company and other vendors over the next few years. “The traditional IT industry will continue to grow at 6-7 percent a year. But the new industry based on digital content, consumer content creation and convergence will grow at more than 10pc a year.

 The Connections conference is organised by Texas-based digital home market analyst Parks Associates. There are nearly a thousand delegates, with presentations and exhibits from a range of leading vendors. – Graeme Philipson