If Cisco can tell customers "here's how the network enables this new business model, then why wouldn't you partner with Cisco, going forward?" Chambers asked. "Will [customers] pay a premium for that? Absolutely."
The predicted overall market growth, Chambers cautioned, depends on a number of favorable factors, including a continued growth of the overall economy, an uncertain bet at best. But Cisco's wide mix of technology product lines -- which range from home-networking products to enterprise networking gear to high-end routers for the largest telecom service providers -- gives the company an edge as networks continue to converge, Chambers said.
"It's a strategy of keeping ahead," Chambers said, and to "experiment a little bit," citing Cisco's early entries in the IP telephony and wireless markets as proof of strategic decisions that are now paying off in billion-dollar-per-year benefits. "But it's the combination of business and technology that really excites me,' he added.
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