Polycom, IBM team on consumer video chat product

Polycom revealed this week that it plans to work with IBM to bring its video telepresence technology into consumers' homes. The announcement comes as Skype's reached a deal  to embed their software into Panasonic and LG HDTVs in the future.  

Polycom and IBM plan to unveil their product at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas later this week. The device which sounds like a stand-alone video conferencing play would use consumers' high-speed Internet and would allow for multiple users on the same chat line. IBM claimed the product will be part of its futuristic home demo, and has no plans to launch home videoconferencing products under it's own brand. It looks like it will be an interesting year for video calling, since apparently Cisco is launching a competing product as well.

For more:
- read this Reuters article

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