Engadget is reporting that Yahoo! is about to expand into the consumer hardware biz.
No official confirmation on this, but a well-placed inside source tells us that Yahoo will be branching out in a big way soon with a line of consumer electronics which should be announced sometime within the next two weeks. The initial line up is supposedly a portable DVD player, two LCD televisions, and a home theater in a box system.
I'm not at all convinced this story is accurate, but even if it is, I don't see where Yahoo! has ever shown that they have the brand identity or business expertise to expand into a fundamentally different business. Online info is VERY different from consumer electronics.
Brand extension is almost always a failure. You can't take a brand-name that is successful in one product area, and apply it to a different area. The classic example was Lysol's attempt to put their well-known name on a line of air fresheners.
Posted by jackhodgson at September 11, 2004 11:24 AM