Akimbo still in the game

Cisco’s throwing a pile of money at Akimbo. Recently it’s also invested in CinemaNow and MovieBeam. Both of those will go nowhere fast. MovieBeam already went dark once.

Akimbo’s different – an IPTV play that’s greatest shortcoming was that it required customers to hook up yet another set top box. We’ve already got enough boxes and gadgets hooked up to our TVs. Who do you know interested in shelling out a couple hundred more bucks plus subscription and pay per download fees for more clutter in the home theater?

But Cisco makes things interesting. Cisco owns Scientific Atlanta, a company that makes set top boxes a lot of Americans already have. Load the Akimbo software in SA boxes and IPTV gets the push it needs. Look mom, no Media Center PC! Expect Brightcove to find a way to bypass the PC in short order.

• San Jose Mercury News 6/26/06
• GigaOM