Companies Battle For Video Conferencing Dominance

In the last month alone, more than four major companies have announced the upcoming releases of their conferencing software and hardware. For the most part, many of this products have features that will allow for better conferencing capabilities, but it appears that Microsoft is the only one that got it completely right. Although Apple has been dominating the smart phone industry with the iPhone, they haven't yet harnessed the power of open community video conferencing within their standard operating systems. The iPhone 5 is still being developed, so it is likely that Apple is going to release some new features that will again put them on top. Microsoft Lync is going to change the way that people do business, from collaborating on projects in real time from different locations, to live video chat and messaging upgrades. Microsoft also announced that the XBox 360 accessory, the Kinect, would be used for 'living room' video chat possibilities. It is not yet known if Microsoft plans on integrating the Kinect into the their Lync software somehow, but since the two announcements were both made recently, it is very possible. HP on the other hand has a pretty nice piece of stand alone conference call hardware and software, but it is the second most expensive conferencing product available right now. It kind of looks like Hewlett-Packard decided to jump on the same bandwagon as the rest of their competitors at the last minute and didn't think about pricing their product to sell. Logitech and Google TV are wrapping up a deal that could have teenagers plugging into every electrical socket available in their homes so that they can talk, chat, play games and watch TV at the same time. Major networks are still too scared to partner with Google on this project, but as usual, Google has been able to find a way to work around their hurdles. It is apparent that video conferencing is going to be bigger than we could ever imagine, but just how many consumers are going to want to be a part of it? Businesses of all sizes already use conference calling on a regular basis, and families have used webcams to communicate for years, but what about the rest of us?