Posts Tagged ‘Skype’

Video Chat Finally Goes Mobile in the US…or Does It?

Monday, July 19th, 2010

by Mariette Johnson Wharton, VP of Marketing

At last, iPhone with both front and rear-facing video cameras…

FaceTime, the iPhone video chat app, coupled with Skype’s Nokia N900 video chat client, means mobile video should finally be going mainstream. GigaOm’s new report predicts 11 billion video calls by 2015.

Couldn’t agree more with Michael Roston’s description of iPhone 4 FaceTime’s shortcomings or rather, the failure of the network to support video conferencing.

While there were high hopes for iPhone 4’s built-in front-facing and back-facing video cameras for video chat, the reality has been disappointing. Although the camera quality is good, the service doesn’t work reliably over WiFi.

Roston points out “a really useful capability would allow you to video chat with someone not only on your iPhone 4 to their iPhone 4 or Mac, but to video chat with anyone over WiFi who has a program on their device that supports video conferencing”.

At Vidtel, we could not agree more. In fact, our vision is to enable any video conferencing-capable device to connect seamlessly with any other. Currently, we are working on connecting standard, proprietary video devices to each other over our network, accessible as a subscription fee.

Today, even standard video conferencing devices do not natively interoperate. You would think this problem would be diminishing over time. In fact, the opposite is true, amplifying the need for a third-party such as Vidtel to launch a type of video conversion engine to seamless connect all standard video devices. A video equivalent of the PSTN (public-switched telephone network or plain ol’ phone network) if you will.

Tags: FaceTime, front and rear-facing video cameras, GigaOm, iPhone 4, iPhone 4G, mobile video, Nokia N900, Skype, Thomas Howe, Vidtel, WiFi
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A Shift Toward Business-Grade Video Conferencing

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

by Mariette Johnson Wharton, VP of Marketing

Research Now released a recent survey of 1200 global business professionals on the topic of video conferencing. The study showed that most (79%) who use video conferencing are using consumer technologies such as Skype. The remainder (21%) use business-grade video conferencing systems from the likes of Tandberg, Cisco and Polycom.

Given that most are using consumer-grade video conferencing applications for business meetings, it’s not surprising that the majority (61%) reported quality problems such as video delay.

As high-quality dedicated video conferencing systems (available for as little $800-$1500) become more commonplace and as more service providers offer inexpensive video conferencing solutions (such as Vidtel’s Connect service), it’s only a matter of time before business-grade video conferencing takes considerable share away from consumer applications.

It’s no surprise either that the survey shows reduced travel expenses and improved quality of business communications are behind the video conferencing trend. These are significant benefits and 40% of the survey respondents reported their companies will be deploying a video conferencing within the next 6-24 months.

Let’s just hope they spare themselves the aggravations of lower-quality solutions when high-quality, reasonably priced solutions are on the market today. At Vidtel, we conduct our video conferences on Tandberg and Polycom dedicated video conferencing devices in the $800-$1500 range with TV-like quality. Hardly any reason to travel any more, except for fun.

Tags: Polycom, Skype, Tandberg, Video Conferencing, video conferencing survey, video conferencing trend, Vidtel
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Vidtel Wins Three Awards For Best Technology Products and Services of 2009

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

By Mariette Johnson Wharton, VP of Marketing

Trender Research announced the winners of its Best of 2009 Trender Awards on February 27, 2009. Vidtel is pleased to have won three categories: 2009_award_logo2

* “Best Communications Product/Service”

* “Send it! Best Hoped-For Upcoming Product/Service in 2009″

* “Best Convergence Product/Service”

The Trender Awards honor gadgets and services that are novel and technologically advanced, improve people’s lives, and appeal to everyday folks. Nearly 100 tech products and services that Trender Research deemed had a good chance of becoming mainstream, had already been embraced by everyday consumers, or had what it takes to be adopted by customers in their intended target markets were reviewed.

Trender Research reports that it focused on products that hit “a sweet-spot of functionality, usability, and value” and looked at “what everyday folks might actually use”. Factors considered included: “price and ease of installation/use, but also psychological and marketing factors such as understandability, branding, appeal to a wide demographic set, advertising, accessibility of channels and access to customer support”.

We are honored to receive these awards. For the “Best Communications Product/Service”, the finalists were PDT Minoru 3D Webcam, Vidtel and Vonage. Skype was a contender and received Honorable Mention. The top two contenders for the “Best Hoped-For Upcoming Product/Service in 2009″ were GigaTribe and Vidtel. The finalists for ‘Best Convergence Product/Service” finalists were Allio Lite HDTV/PC, Vidtel and WowWee “Rovio”.

Tags: Doug Mohney, Skype, Trender Awards, Trender Research, video calling, video phone, Vidtel, winners of best of 2009 awards
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »