"It's never been our great desire to be a hardware company; our expertise is software and user interface," says Tomlin. He prefers consumers think of Chumby as a content and media business, based on an ecosystem of widgets and third-party developers. His vision of Chumby's future centers on bringing that personal multimedia Web experience to as many connected consumer electronics as possible.

Several "powered by Chumby" gadgets will launch for the holiday season. The first offering will be a digital picture frame. Tomlin says Chumby and its hardware partner, who Tomlin declined to name, chose the category because it has wide appeal and few competitors. "Selling someone an LCD in a plastic frame with a memory card is not a compelling product," says Tomlin. "The challenge is to reinvent how to share photos and media."