Case Study Of Cisco UMI-Home Video Design

Short Paper
Cisco UMI- Home Video Gear
IT_641- Telecommunications for Business
Prof. Dr. Andrew Potter
Submitted by
Bala Dheeraj Reddy Thumma
Southern New Hampshire University

I was from a generation where we used letters to communicate when I was in my primary school. Just with a gap of 2-3 years pagers, telephones became popular with their increase of usage. I never thought of something like video conference back then. But this is the most easiest and comfortable means of communication now a days. Due to the comfort factor, many devices are being designed and launched. Cisco product was one of them which supports video conference calls. There were many products in the market and Cisco- UMI was one such home video/audio gear
They released it with a price of $599 with an EMI of $24.99. It has boost up packages like Unlimited video UMI calls, storing of all the video messages and video messaging option was also available. To give a value added and good experience Cisco- UMI gave a statement of working with Verizon. Working with Verizon would enhance its services. Because of the high definition video it stands out than all the other existing applications in the market. A new option like sending a video message and storing it added a plus point to this product. So with these features, Cisco released the product with full of expectations. These high expectations turned out to a disaster. Due to the high cost factor people dint prefer this product. There were free applications like Skype which was portable to any device. So many critics thought this was a stiff competition to Cisco- UMI in the market.
By this effect, Cisco decided to continue the services to the existing users and stopped manufacturing new UMI products. Lack of interoperability is considered as the main reason for this failure. The product is not at all compatible with any other existing device. Any new or guest users dint have the chance to connect with the UMI video conference. Due to these limitations and reasons the product turned to be very inefficient compared to any other products in the
People opt for mobile devices for ease. The home applications will be mostly compatible other than single handling task devices. Wireless media is the option preferred mostly by people and the TV, DVD, home audio are few examples which use them. Because of the high usage of smart phones people want to use wireless media. It is not important to buy all devices instead you can just install all the services from different vendors by just setting a password.

References
Cisco bets on home video-calling. (2010, Oct 06). Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/10/cisco_bets_home_video-calling
David S. Maldow. (2012, Jan 4). Cisco Kills Umi: Home Telepresence is an Open Field. Retrieved from http://www.telepresenceoptions.com/2012/01/cisco_kills_umi_home_teleprese/ ebay. (2014, Apr 29). Your Guide to Buying Audio/Video Transmitters for the Office. Retrieved from http://www.ebay.com/gds/Your-Guide-to-Buying-Audio-Video-Transmitters-for-the-Office-/10000000177632007/g.html
Home network. (2014). Retrieved from