Get Me A $100 Endpoint, And Let’s Start Communicating

By Sagee Ben-Zedeff

Categories: Video Conferencing

September 22nd, 2009

The debate on which endpoint we’ll be using for video conferencing, once it’s mass deployed and becomes a must-use means of communication is as old as the debate on when it will be mass deployed and become a must-use means of communication. As my “elderly” colleague Tsahi wrote, we’re just around the corner for too long.

Still, it makes an interesting debate: assuming video conferencing becomes a tool that every employee, be it a Fortune 500 CEO or a secretary in a small law office, will be using, what will it be – hardware based systems, such as room systems and desktop endpoints, as we know today, or software clients that are only recently becoming popular?

The hardware-based SCOPIA VC-240 and the software-based SCOPIA Desktop

On one hand, hardware based systems are the majority today. They are popular, they come in all shapes and sizes, and… well, they cost plenty. Even the “small”, “personal” ones cost a few thousand dollars. On the other hand, software clients, which can be very cheap (free, even), will always be more limited, and maybe always perceived as second best. Tsahi summed it up very clearly in a recent post.

Hardware or Software – Who cares?!

As RADVISION now offers both hardware-based and software-based clients, I can really answer this question honestly and say – who cares?! If I was a regular Joe, who “just” wants to call his colleague/partner/wife using video, I wouldn’t even want to know what the difference is between hardware based and software based endpoints.

IMHO, at the end of the day, it’s all about the money: the money it costs to buy the endpoint; the money it takes to setup the endpoint; the money it takes to maintain the endpoint (or the service). For all this to work, an endpoint, including everything – hardware, software, service, has to cost as little as possible. That is, if we want video conferencing to become as popular as those other means of communications.

Think about it: we’re all using instant messaging. It costs NOTHING at home, and costs a few dollars in the office. We’re using the desktop phone, which costs a few dollars to buy and a few more dollars a month to maintain. We’re using a mobile phone, which may cost a few hundred dollars to buy and a few more dollars to maintain. And although it’s true that we’re spending more and more on personal communication these days, any communication means should be affordable.

Would I use Skype at work instead of a the “plain old” phone, if my company decided it would be more affordable? Sure. Sound like a reasonable solution. In fact, I already know of a few companies, mainly start-ups, who are using VoIP clients, on mobile handsets and desktops, instead of investing in PBX infrastructure. Maybe that’s why you can buy an IP phone today for under $100.

If I could buy a consumer Skype phone for a few dollars, and use it at home to call everyone, would I use that and not my “physical” home telephone? Again, the answer is: of course. As long as it’s affordable (which, for instance, in Israel, the last time I checked, it still isn’t). I don’t really care what I am using, as long as it works and it is affordable.

Did I go and buy a smartphone for a few hundred dollars (not to mention THE iPhone for $600), instead of the “plain” mobile handset that I got from RADVISION? No. Again, it’s the money talking, sadly. For the same reasons I bought the iPod Nano for $80 and not the iPod touch for $300, as the Nano serves me well-enough. And if the iPhone would be selling locally for $99, with a reasonable monthly plan, I’m sure I would be standing in line to buy it.

People queueing outside of the Apple store on 5^th Ave.
for the iPhone 3G, July 2008. CC: goodrob13

The $100 Endpoint

I’m not a sales/marketing/financing guru (yet…), but I believe – as a rather experienced customer – that the key is simple: the endpoint, any endpoint, should be affordable (preferably free); the service, any service, should be also affordable, but more important customable – if you want more, you will pay more.

So who will prevail, if and when? I believe that it will be the endpoint that will allow you and me to communicate for “a few” dollars. Remember the $100 laptop? It was designed to bring computer literacy to EVERYONE. A $100 endpoint, with whatever technology inside, will have a similar effect on the video conferencing market.

Google already allows you to video call your friends for free. Skype does that too, and a bunch of other companies offer similar services. And people use them extensively, because they work well and they are affordable. Think of a similar service for the enterprise (on the cloud?), and we may have a winner. And even if “free” is too naïve, and the service will cost a few bucks a month, it is still a feasible solution for the masses.

So how DO you get to a $100 endpoint? Will the hardware ever be strong enough to be cheap enough or would the solution have to be a software one? That’s a very good question that I’ll leave open at this point in time. But again – most of the users will not care, not about what’s “inside” and not about who’s in charge. Just give them a working solution for a reasonable price, and let’s start communicating.