Cisco Could Unbundle Software Hardware From Contract Maintenance

This is an interesting move, not totally unheard of, but interesting because of the symbiotic relationship already existing with the Linksys networking gear and Open Source. If they really do unbundled software from the hardware, it will increase revenues, incrementally but may be the camel nose that allows wider spread of Open Source networking gear.

Cisco may adopt unbundled pricing - Network World

"We have to evolve our software strategy," said Cisco CEO and Chairman John Chambers during a session with journalists at the show. "We tend to lump software into maintenance. So often people get the difference between maintenance and software upgrades [confused] when in fact they are in the same category."