4G accelerating telepresence to any device?


Cisco, Microsoft, and Skype are all making aggressive plays to bring videoconferencing to any device starting with the TV.  Cisco is going the high-end route with its Umi (http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/10/08/ciscos-new-umi-the-answer-to-a-question-nobody-asked/)  at a price point of $600 for the unit and $24.99/month for the service, this will truly be aimed at high-end consumers and professionals who are willing to pay for an enterprise brand.  Even if the video chat experience is good, user may get frustrated with the service given it requires 1.5Mbps of bandwidth.  Other alternatives include Skype which has been in the PC video chat game for a while and has now partnered with several TV manufacturers (Panasonic and Samsung) to embed skype into the TV inlcuding a wide angle camera (http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/get-skype/on-your-tv/)  The service is free to other skype users.  Google offers free video chat via Google TV which is nbow available in some TV models from Sony, on a seperate device from Logitech, or soon on Android 3.0 devices (referred to as Gingerbread).  And finally, Microsoft is entering the TV video conference market via Xbox with its latest Kinect offering which not only supports getsrure based gaming, but also has a camera that supports video chat.  Kinect costs another $150 on top of an Xbox360 and the service is free.  This will get more interesting as the 4G is rolled out and supports high quality videoconferencing anywhere to any device, especially tablets with their large screens.  Apple has already pushed out facetime but the servce is restricted to iPhone4 users and can only be used on a WiFi connections so far, which has limited the adoption.  If you believe the Cisco projection on mobile data (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html), the bulk will be video and much of this will be videoconferencing/telepresence.  But it is still unclear how we will get there and who will be the winners in this market as we move from the living room and TV to anywhere on any device.  One thing is for sure, the price needs to be consistent with the user experience it provides which means Cisco may have to sharpen its pencil.
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This page contains a single entry by Scott A. Snyder published on November 21, 2010 4:38 PM.

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