Cisco expects the global market for digital signage products will be more than $2 billion in 2010, Wyatt said.

Melissa Webster, an analyst at market research firm IDC, said there are already a "tremendous number" of digital signage providers today, perhaps hundreds, that work in a "highly fragmented market." Almost all the vendors are small, but larger ones tend to focus on building advertising networks or deploying outdoor signs.

Sony Corp. sells displays but also began to sell a digital signage system in Europe last year, she said. The systems so far have been customized, and Cisco's new product represents the first major effort to offer a standards-based, plug-and-play system, Webster said.

"I think we will see very rapid uptake once there are large, standards-oriented vendors in the market," such as Cisco, she said.

A customer will benefit from the flexibility of the technology, Webster noted. Retailers "can deploy a new promotion across hundreds of stores in a nationwide chain literally at the push of a button," she said. But local customization of the content would be possible to allow a store that's experiencing mild weather to push merchandise different from a store in an area enduring snowstorms, Webster added.