CEO said at the Consumer Electronics Show that he wanted the public to understand Cisco's commitment to consumer products generally. "We are really committed to this consumer market and we're putting the power of the whole company behind it," Chambers said.

Cisco has been active in building and marketing consumer products such as Wi-Fi routers for five years, but Chambers pointed to today's announcements as examples of products that will move Cisco's revenues for consumer products from $1 billion a year to his goal of $10 billion.

Chambers also said the company will begin more active branding and marketing of its consumer products, using the Cisco brand name, over the next year. He also said the company was working to build handheld wireless devices for consumers, using internal development teams and partnering with other companies.

Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at The in Boston, said the consumer direction for Cisco, the leader in networking products used by businesses and service providers, was still an uphill battle.

Consumer products are still "the next frontier for Cisco ... [which] has very little name recognition with consumers," Kerravala told Computerworld .