Cisco
Cisco dropped the price by 100 and now it costs $499 and subscription is $99/year. Originally the equipment price is $599 and subscription is $300/year. So that's a hefty drop. Still IMHO, the service is one of the worst from the tech giant. This will not be a success because
* I can use Skype and I don't sit in front of a TV for video calls. My laptop screen is big enough and I get pretty decent quality with Skype 5.
* There are few more alternatives like Google or Yahoo or old MSN. Did I mention all of them are FREE
* The idea lifecycle is too short. If people love to use TV for video calling we are in the midst of connecting our TV's to Internet. We've seen Samsung TV's that can support Skype natively and soon more and more TV's will be coming with Internet connectivity. Then it's a matter of time before someone write "APP" for TV. It could be Apple or Google.
* If I want to do it right now I can just plug in my Laptop to the TV via HDMI. So I don't need to spend a single $.
Overall it seems Cisco need to seriously think on what they want to do and should focus on what is their strength. In my view, their strength is Routers, Switches & other stuff which is more like Enterprises & Service Providers. Juniper recently announced their strategy and the VP made it clear that their profit margins will remain around 68% for the next couple of years. Its not the same case for Cisco. Cisco margins are squeezed and we can see that in their Q3.
Please, no more UMI or FLIP. While I appreciate your efforts to create/capture Consumer segment you should try to understand what these folks really want.
Cisco dropped the price by 100 and now it costs $499 and subscription is $99/year. Originally the equipment price is $599 and subscription is $300/year. So that's a hefty drop. Still IMHO, the service is one of the worst from the tech giant. This will not be a success because
* I can use Skype and I don't sit in front of a TV for video calls. My laptop screen is big enough and I get pretty decent quality with Skype 5.
* There are few more alternatives like Google or Yahoo or old MSN. Did I mention all of them are FREE
* The idea lifecycle is too short. If people love to use TV for video calling we are in the midst of connecting our TV's to Internet. We've seen Samsung TV's that can support Skype natively and soon more and more TV's will be coming with Internet connectivity. Then it's a matter of time before someone write "APP" for TV. It could be Apple or Google.
* If I want to do it right now I can just plug in my Laptop to the TV via HDMI. So I don't need to spend a single $.
Overall it seems Cisco need to seriously think on what they want to do and should focus on what is their strength. In my view, their strength is Routers, Switches & other stuff which is more like Enterprises & Service Providers. Juniper recently announced their strategy and the VP made it clear that their profit margins will remain around 68% for the next couple of years. Its not the same case for Cisco. Cisco margins are squeezed and we can see that in their Q3.
Please, no more UMI or FLIP. While I appreciate your efforts to create/capture Consumer segment you should try to understand what these folks really want.
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