Videophones, Round 3: Finally as easy as picking up the phone?

One of the key mantras in the videoconferencing market always has been "it should as easy as picking up a phone.“有些产品, such as Polycom’s intuitive remote control—which was based on feedback from the gaming industry—meet the criteria; other products throughout the years have missed the ease-of-use mark entirely.

咒语也有, 不时地, compelled product manufacturers to attempt to integrate videoconferencing into the venerable desktop phone. 被称为“可视电话”," these devices appear every few years in an attempt to merge phone and videoconferencing functionalities in one unit.

Videophones were first introduced by AT&T at the 1964 World’s Fair, meeting with great critical acclaim and public wonder but limited financial success. 在90年代中期, the advent of ISDN allowed product manufacturers of ISDN videoconferencing systems the flexibility of shrinking room-sized systems into compact phone/videoconferencing units similar in size to today’s videophones. 但是紧凑的成本, 集成, flat-panel screens pushed the price of the units into the thousands, and video quality was substandard due to the single ISDN limit (128Kbps) and compression algorithms that were optimized for the higher bitrates used in room videoconferencing systems. These units enjoyed brief success, with rollouts by major telephony service providers reaching similar "buzz levels" to current announcements (see this 1996篇文章 举个例子).

沃尼奇 announced in December that it will begin to sell videophone service to its voice over IP customers, with a focus on small to medium business customers. The announcement, which also included mention of 沃尼奇’s hardware partner, Viseon, received significant press attention and ushers in Round 3 of videophone convergence, with several other product manufacturers soon to follow suit.

These new videophones appear poised to address the technical issues that doomed videophones in the 1960s and 1990s: today’s units replace ISDN or POTS lines with IP transmission, SIP和H特性.323 support, incorporate new codecs such as H.264, and feature low-cost, high-resolution LCD screens. Yet a fundamental question has remained unanswered since 1964: do business customers want videophones and will they use them?

To get a better sense of how Round 3 companies will fare, three critical concerns need to be addressed: product design strategy, 营销策略, 以及消费者行为.

产品设计策略. The CES show in early January 2005 will see the unveiling of numerous videophone products, such as the 沃尼奇/Viseon unit and WorldGate’s Ojo (based on a Motorola chipset, who is also an early Ojo customer). Based on 信息 current as of this article, it appears 沃尼奇 made the right choice for a hardware partner, since Viseon had previously released a videophone product—the Visifone—in late 2003. 根据 数字媒体内幕, Viseon plans to release its new product for less than $300 (the Visifone was released at a $599 price point). 协助产品设计, Viseon announced that it had engaged Bleck Design Group, a well-known firm that has designed ubiquitous products like the Polycom ViewStation and Dymo Label Printer. Bleck Design Group will perform both mechanical and functional design of the new Viseon videophone.