Cisco's Umi Videoconferencing - Now For Business?

Cisco's Umi always had possibilities as a small business videoconferencing solution. Now price cuts and a new marketing approach may make it an even more attractive option.

"Cisco's Umi home videoconferencing system, the most extravagant and futuristic part of the company's consumer product line, seems to be in search of an identity amid the consumer reorganization that the company announced on Tuesday.

Cisco plans to integrate Umi with its Business TelePresence line and sell it through enterprise and service provider channels, according to a brief statement that outlined the company's shake-up of its consumer businesses. As part of the same reorganization, Cisco plans to discontinue the Flip video camera, "refocus the Home Networking business for profitability" and look at other possibilities for its Eos media business. The moves come after weak financial results that led Chairman and CEO John Chambers to call for a refocusing of the company."