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Completing a major step toward what it calls the “media-enabled home,” the world’s largest maker of computer networking equipment, Cisco Systems Inc., today completed its estimated $590 million of San Francisco-based Pure Digital Technologies Inc., makers of the wildly popular Flip brand camcorders (pictured below).

 

Announced a few months ago, Cisco (News - Alert) says the acquisition is part of its “strategy to expand its momentum in the media-enabled home and capture the consumer market transition to visual networking.”

 

“The acquisition will take Cisco’s consumer business to the next level as the company develops new video capabilities and drives the next generation of entertainment and communication experiences,” the San Jose, Calif.-based IT bellwether said.

 

The acquisition comes less than a month after Pure Digital unveiled its new, more robust Flip Ultra line of the cell phone-size camcorders (see our full product review). In advance of that launch, we spoke to Scott Kabat, Pure Digital’s director of marketing, about the company’s flagship product, and came to admire its anti-iPhone approach.

 

Now the big question is: Will Cisco add things like WiFi (News - Alert) or 3G connectivity to the device?

 

Cisco’s vice president of corporate business development, Charles Carmel (News - Alert), recently told us that while his company sees the acquisition as part of its strategy to serve the media-enabled home – but he was, like Kabat, quiet on the prospect of adding things like 3G connectivity.

 

It would be foolish for Pure Digital to ignore thoughts of features such as phone capability or WiFi connectivity, Kabat concedes, but the specifics of such a move – the how, whether and, if so, when – are secondary to the company’s desire to deliver on simplicity, quality and affordability.

 

“To be honest, the biggest temptation is just to get caught up in ‘feature creep,’ “ Kabat told us. “It’s so easy to start layering in and take away the core things that the Flip is all about, the reasons why it’s not just another brand. We want it to be friendly and approachable. There’s a pretty disciplined process to adding new technology.”

 

Now we’re all watching closely to see whether and how that process unfolds.