Wow.

The last couple days have been full of news and it’s time to write about it!  Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting headlines for videoconferencing and discuss the implications:

Skype, which keeps claiming to be a business conferencing tool but isn’t, hired Tony Bates to be CEO.  Tony Bates was formerly in charge of Cisco’s enterprise unit.  If this doesn’t look like a firm commitment to move from a “desktop share” that is actually just a rasterized screenshot to an actual collaboration toolkit, I don’t know what does.  Keep in mind, though, that making the adjustment from a consumer-optimized calling product to a business-optimized collaboration product will take a lot of time and upheaval.

Cisco, on the other hand, is moving into the consumer space.  As noted here before several times, Cisco has a habit of not creating videoconferencing products that encourage adoption, expand the marketplace, and advance the value of video for the end users.  Instead they create expensive luxury toys.  The most recent example is the ūmi (pronounced “you me”—get it?), a set top Continue reading →