Is Video Conferencing Growing or Dying?

December 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment


Great question.

These days depending on who you talk to or what report you read it could be either.

Take a recent IDG report on the state of the video conferencing market showed a bleak outlook:

  • Overall worldwide market worth of enterprise video market decreased 4.8 percent during Q32012
  • North America fell 11.5 during the period
  • Immersive telepresence system growth declined 35.7 year over year in Q3
  • Related ancillaries and accessories declined 28.6 percent as well

In other words, ouch. Right?

It’s not all bleak. This doesn’t mean the market is going to collapse.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: video conferencing

Windows Mobile Gets Tango, Skype Holds up the Wall

October 26, 2011 By 2 Comments


So much for making quick use of your $8.5 billion dollar investment Steve.

Today Tango, one of the fastest growing communication services ever, announced that its service will be the first mobile video calling service available for the upcoming Windows Phone update “Mango” beating out Microsoft’s own mobile video calling service Skype.

Not that this should come as a surprise. After all Microsoft has a track record of botching acquisition integrations and given that Tango is still a start-up, they’re afforded the benefit of not having to deal with Skype’s massive daily operations (nor the Microsoft bureaucracy).

But adding fuel, or at the very least press release fodder, to a fast growing competitor is never a good thing.

Given the rising interest in consumer and business video calling one has to wonder if Tango, who now has the platform trifecta of iPhone, Andriod and Windows Phone, won’t soon become the front runner in mobile video calling. With video quickly becoming as pervasive as voice it would be a mammoth position to be in.

Thanks to a few month head start on each platform, a laser focus and a boatload of cash, Microsoft’s Skype could have a very real competitor for the first time. The disruptor becomes the disrupted.

Sounds pretty familiar, huh Microsoft?

Filed Under: video

Polycom SoundStation Duo

October 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment
polycom duo

Polycom SoundStation Duo

File this one under why didn’t this exist already.

Today Polycom announced their latest conference phone offering, the SoundStation Duo, which marries VoIP and PSTN calling capabilities into one device.

Polycom SoundStation Overview

The Polycom Duo comes packed with all the industry leading features that you’ve come to expect from Polycom such as:

  • SIP based, with support for today’s leading IP PBX platforms
  • Killer voice quality through Polycom HDVoice
  • Full dial pad and four softkeys
  • White scale LCD
  • Power over Ethernet through a single RJ45
  • Single FXO port

Plus…

  • Automatic failover from IP to analog in case your network goes down
  • Applications port for connecting a mobile phone when an analog line isn’t available

Polycom SoundStation Duo is a Win-Win

This dual-mode conference phone is a smart move by the folks at Polycom.

With analog line revenues decreasing, but still representing a large chunk of their conferencing business, the Polycom Duo will allow Polycom to merge their legacy SoundStation into their current IP offerings. This will give Polycom them the ability to painlessly phase out their analog offerings without losing revenues to those behind the times.

All while ensuring the market laggards are future proofed for when they final make the switch.

The Polycom SoundStation Duo is now available through certified Polycom partners like VoIP Supply with a list price of $849 USD.

Filed Under: VoIP Hardware

You, the Market and the Manufacturer

July 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Everyone sees the world through a different lens.

At no time has this fact struck me harder then at a recent partner event. The event was designed to bring channel partners from around the world into one room to learn and discuss the future of manufacturer’s product direction.

Now any time you get folks from all parts the of the world into a room there’s bound to be differences of opinion, but I was shocked by the reality distortion of some individuals when it came to certain topics, like product roadmaps.

This not to say that their reality was distorted negatively; it’s just that many failed to see that there is no such thing as one size fits all or one way to please them all. An especially vexing position for a manufacturer to be in, considering they have to attempt to serve many masters.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: VoIP Commentary

The Channel’s Problem Child

July 26, 2011 By 1 Comment

This is the third in a series on the VoIP equipment channel designed to educate, bring transparency and inspire change for the good of all channel members. You can read part one here and part two here.

Wild Wild West.

Or is it the world wide web? Eight years ago they were one in the same.

At least for the VoIP equipment channel.

While our service brethren were busy disrupting Telecommunications industry using the Internet as a new transportation mechanism for voice, the equipment channel itself was going through the same exact disruption lead by a number of young guns who thought of distribution in an entirely new way.

At its core equipment distribution is similar to any other form of distribution; whether it be knowledge or media. And just like the Internet disrupted and transformed the way in which we both find and consume knowledge and media, the Internet proved to be a capable medium driving awareness and access to equipment for this new market.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: VoIP Commentary
« Older Posts