Belkin and Linksys

[stevech]

Any insights as to if/when Belkin will re-brand and retire the Linksys brand?

 

[sfx2000]

My guess is that they'll keep the Linksys brand alive - it has better customer name recognition in the home AP/Router space, and a better reputation.

Cisco kept the brand alive for the same reason...

Long live the WRT54G - that one device probably at one time was the most highly regarded consumer AP's on the market - until they dumbed it down with V5 and later (the VXWorks products) due to cost reduction.

sfx

 

[stevech]

Long live the WRT54G - that one device probably at one time was the most highly regarded consumer AP's on the market - until they dumbed it down with V5 and later (the VXWorks products) due to cost reduction.

sfx

When Cisco bought Aironet (eons ago) they were using VXworks. After a year or so, Cisco replaced VXworks with Cisco's infamous IOS.

Consumer routers don't seem to standardize on much; most have a variant of open source Linux or embedded Linux. But the same vendor name, different product, can vary greatly over time. Not consistent. I guess that's due to the low-margin consumer biz.

 

[thiggins]

Any insights as to if/when Belkin will re-brand and retire the Linksys brand?

Why do you ask?

I met with Belkin a few months ago. I saw no indication of retiring either brand.

 

[sfx2000]

When Cisco bought Aironet (eons ago) they were using VXworks. After a year or so, Cisco replaced VXworks with Cisco's infamous IOS.

Consumer routers don't seem to standardize on much; most have a variant of open source Linux or embedded Linux. But the same vendor name, different product, can vary greatly over time. Not consistent. I guess that's due to the low-margin consumer biz.

I've got nothing against VXWorks - it's a fine OS, it really is - it was more that Linksys, chasing down the cost reduction path, used VXWorks in a very memory constrained environment - which impacted performance - and broadcom seemed to, at the time, struggle to provide drivers that were stable enough.

In the right environment - VXWorks is awesome to work with - many of the newer In Vehicle Entertainment systems - they're built on VXWorks, as are many of the computers that run your car - they're a strong player in the embedded space with a robust offering.

Not that Linux or BSD can't compare, but VXworks has the advantage of not being encumbered by various licenses, which appeals to some HW vendors with a big stake in keeping things, erm, private...

That whole mess - Linksys should have changed the model number, but at the end of the day it's all moot.

 

[stevech]

I like to watch such M&A and see if the acquired company/product survives/thrives, if the acquiring company changes its identity, what happens to the technology of each, etc. So many interesting stories in M&A. Seems like most large ones fail. Sometimes the M&A is more a hostile take-over, a boardroom battle of egos, etc. This is the M&A of two smallish companies.

I always found Belkin to be interesting - knows how to do retailing and get on the shelves. And (used to?) use mostly Broadcom reference designs so their products were pretty consistently good despite them being a blister-pack marketing outfit. Combined then, with Linksys- a startup acquired by Cisco after their Aironet acquisition, for Cisco to work the consumer space. For most of Linksys-Cisco, it did extremely well- I say they set the benchmark for consumer WiFi. Then Cisco as they are want to do, got bored with it and small margins. Look at how many startups Cisco has bought, and most were wrecked. Linksys - they left as a subsidary P&L center.

So it'll be interesting to see what the merger of the two turns out to be. Maybe they'll rename Belkin as Linksys.