By Don Clark
SAN FRANCISCO-- Cisco Systems Inc. unveiled two special-purpose
desktop computers designed for videoconferencing, along with a new
online service that the company said will allow users of different
devices and services to connect for online meetings.
The new devices, called the DX70 and DX80, combine a monitor,
video camera, microphone, telephone and other features along with a
tabletlike computer powered by Google Inc.'s Android operating
system. Cisco expects the devices to serve as easy-to-use
alternatives to the collection of computers and accessories
corporate workers typically use now.
Cisco's DX80, which has a 24-inch display, will be priced at
less than $2,000. The DX70, which is smaller, will cost less than
$1,000, the company said.
"These are new levels for Cisco," said Rowan Trollope, a Cisco
senior vice president.
Cisco, which announced the products at the opening of an event
for customers here, is best known for networking hardware. But it
has used acquisitions to build a major sideline in
collaboration-related businesses.
The company in 2010 purchased the Norwegian communications
company Tandberg ASA for $3.3 billion, and before that purchased
the Web-based conferencing company WebEx for about the same
amount.
Its new offerings come as Cisco and other makers of
videoconferencing products and services have been challenged by
free and low-cost alternatives, including the Skype service
purchased by Microsoft Corp. In some cases, customers are also
turning to standard PCs or other hardware and away from more costly
gear that is dedicated for communications.
Cisco last week said that revenue in its collaboration business
declined 12% to $892 million in its third fiscal quarter.
Cisco's new online service--called Collaboration Meeting Rooms,
or CMRs--is also a reaction to customer frustration that many
competing conferencing offerings don't readily work together. A
meeting room equipped with Cisco hardware, for example, hasn't
easily been able to connect for videoconferencing calls with rooms
using gear from rival Polycom Inc.
The CMR offering is designed to break down such barriers,
relying partly on a trend among videoconferencing companies to
migrate to common technical specifications that can allow them to
work together. It is designed to support services using meeting
rooms as well as simpler conferencing options that are used on PCs
with Web browsers or with apps on smartphones and tablets.
CMR services will be sold to both individuals and companies
starting in mid-October, with prices in the "tens of dollars" a
month per user, said Peder Ulander, a Cisco vice president of
marketing. They will be operated from 19 data centers that are now
used to run WebEx, and should be able to support millions of users
around the world, he said.
The company's rivals aren't standing still, however. Companies
launching new online conferencing offerings include LifeSize, a
unit of Logitech International SA, while startups such as Blue
Jeans Network have also claim rapid growth.
Krish Ramakrishnan, a former Cisco executive who is CEO of Blue
Jeans, says it has more than 2,000 customers, some of them with as
many as 50,000 employees using its service. He said he believes the
CMR effort is largely an effort to emulate the success of Blue
Jeans in connecting different conferencing schemes.
"We are the original interoperability service," he said.
Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com
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