Steadfast Finances
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What Sounds Better: Skype/Google Video Chat for Free or Cisco’s Umi for $275 per Year
What sounds like a better deal?
- Unlimited minutes of video chatting over Cisco’s new home based telepresence system called the “Umi” for $25 per month?
or…
- Unlimited minutes of free video chatting on Google video chat or Skype video chat on your home personal computer, laptop, and/or an array of mobile devices of your choosing.
You don’t need to be a frugal living expert, or even a novice for that matter, to figure out consumers are going to go with free video chat technology versus shelling out $600 out of pocket for hardware (that will probably be obsolete by end of 2011) and another $25 per month service fee.
Product roll outs like these are great examples of why many “innovators” probably aren’t going to be the innovators of tomorrow, and are trying desperately to monetize any remaining technologies they can. In the Umi’s case, it looks like another attempt to move merchandise to retail, non-tech savvy (e.g. aging) consumers, which can only be the result of many failed staff meetings where upper management puts the squeeze on the marketing and sales staff to justify their salaries for the next fiscal year.
3 Comments
Oct 12, 201012:47 pm
I only recently started using Skype while on a business trip to New York. It’s awesome how you can be hundreds of miles away and have a video conversation with a loved one. And it’s free – vs. – having to overpay in the past for long distance charges from the hotel.
May 11, 20116:13 am
Skype is great where you have a decent internet connection. Calling to phones is quite affordable as well, even internationally depending on the country. Much better than the hotel, though.
8:16 pm
FREE of course! Oh my goodness. I adore Skype :) It works so well and I don’t have to use my telephone card.