SAN FRANCISCO — Continuing its push into the consumer market, networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. last week unveiled a high-end, high- priced video-calling system that it hopes will open the door to wider home use.
Cisco’s new “umi” (pronounced you-me) system consists of a set-top box, camera and remote controller to connect with home users’ high-definition televisions and high- speed Internet service.
The system, which Cisco plans initially to sell through Best Buy and Verizon, will cost $599 for the system and a monthly fee of $24.99 for unlimited calls and the ability to store messages and other video online. Users can make calls to other people who have the system or who use Google’s video chat service.
Umi will compete with widely used, low-cost video-calling services such as Skype, which allows users to make free calls with webcams. But Cisco executives said they hope to win over customers by offering much- higher-quality video and audio transmission, more similar in performance but easier to operate than the high-end Telepresence video-calling systems that Cisco sells to businesses for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We’re not expecting everybody in the world to go out and get one of these at the beginning,” said Cisco vice president Ken Wirt.
