In 2003, Cisco acquired Linksys, which sells Wi-Fi access points that provide wireless broadband coverage in homes, cafés, and airports. Later, Cisco bought set-top box maker Scientific Atlanta. This January, Cisco unveiled its own wireless-enabled home stereo system, and in March, Cisco acquired Pure Digital, the manufacturer of Flip camcorders. Even before that acquisition, as of last fall, Cisco had sold a total of 168 million consumer gadgets, more than the total number of iPod music players sold. "What we are looking at doing is becoming a next-generation (consumer experience) company," Wirt says. Cisco has a lot to bring to the smartphone table. One of the company's chief aims is to help consumer devices connect to networks and eat up such bandwidth-hungry services as online video. That, in turn, drives sales of its bread-and-butter networking gear.