Cisco Systems, the dominant provider of the digital pipes that run the Internet, is making a big play in digital entertainment. The company says it plans to introduce a new line of products in January, including a digital stereo system that is meant to move music wirelessly around a house.
That is the first small move in a long-term strategy to take on Apple, Sony and the other giants of consumer electronics. Cisco is working on other gadgets that will let people watch Internet video on their televisions more easily. And its biggest bet is that people will want to use a version of its corporate videoconferencing system, called Telepresence, to chat with their friends over their high-definition televisions.
The company has been talking about reaching out to consumers for years. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas two years ago, John Chambers, the Cisco chief executive, laid out a strategy for building networks for entertainment in the home. At the show last year, Cisco promised new technology that would help media companies publish more video that could be watched on these home networks.
But after delays, changes in plans and the assignment of a new executive to oversee all this, Cisco now says the first of its products will hit the shelves, and the video sites will be on the Web, next month.
While Cisco is a newcomer to the consumer electronics business, the company says that after years of promises by the industry, consumer electronics is only now taking advantage of broadband Internet connections and home networks.
“This holiday the vast majority of consumer electronics purchases will be connected,” said Ned Hooper, a Cisco senior vice president, during an interview before Christmas. Hooper was put in charge of the consumer electronics push a year ago. Many music players, digital cameras, game…