Cisco cuts costs of Umi home videoconferencing

IDG News Service - Cisco Systems acted to make its Umi home videoconferencing platform more affordable on Monday, slashing the service cost to $99 per year and announcing a $399 product for slower Internet connections as well as free Mac and PC clients.

Umi, an extension of Cisco's high-end TelePresence line for enterprises, debuted last October for $599, with a service fee of $24.99 per month. Many industry observers said the market for such an expensive consumer product would be limited. Though Cisco said Monday that it has been pleased with sales of Umi so far, its first major extension of the line clearly targets price.

The new $399 Umi system delivers resolution as high as 720p and is designed to work on a home broadband connection with 1.5M bps (bit-per-second) downstream and upstream speed. By comparison, the original unit offers 1080p resolution and is intended for 3.5M bps symmetric broadband, a service that relatively few U.S. consumers have in their homes. Both can adapt to slower speeds, Cisco says. Cisco also cut the price of the 1080p product on Monday, to $499. The new service price, available in a $9.95-per-month option as well as the annual fee, is the same for both hardware platforms.

Demand for the less expensive offerings came from current Umi customers who want to be able to enjoy videoconferences with friends and family who may not be able to afford the original product or don't have the high-speed Internet access it uses, said Gina Clark, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Consumer TelePresence Business Unit.

"It certainly helps to grow those consumer calling circles," Clark said.

Cisco also sees the free Cisco Umi Connect software for Macs and PCs primarily as an expansion option for users of the home systems, even though anyone can download the software free. Some features of the full TV-based Umi experience may not be included in the software, but a user's full Umi contact list will be available, Clark said. Umi Connect could be used by friends or family members who are traveling or living in a college dorm, Clark said. The software is in beta trials and scheduled to become available this summer, according to Cisco.

Also on Monday, Cisco announced it is making Umi interoperate with its enterprise TelePresence systems. The main purpose of this is not teleworking, Clark said. For that, Cisco still recommends enterprise offerings such as its desktop TelePresence product for about $300, which has more features for sharing information, she said. Instead, enterprises in areas such as education and health care wanted this compatibility so they could conduct immersive communication sessions with consumers. Health-care applications are in trials now, Clark said.