Cisco unofficially pulls the plug on Umi

It seems that Cisco has quietly gone about to stop their consumer home videoconferencing system known as Umi, which might just be the death blow dealt to Cisco’s originally well crafted plans to make home (and office, probably) video conferences popular. Originally introduced in October 2010, this is not exactly one of the better products to roll off Cisco’s production lines, although the death of Umi would definitely not spell the end of Cisco as a company. Far from it, actually.

A Cisco spokesperson did confirm with the Business Insider that they will no longer sell hardware that concerns Umi to the end user, so you can kiss this rather expensive “toy” good riddance. $600 will net you a trio of devices that comprise of the camera, controller and set-top box that will link Umi to your broadband connection at 1080p, delivering full HD video conferencing capability. Of course, those who are on a tight budget and do not want to let others see all the freckles and signs of aging can always settle for the slightly more affordable $400 package that supports up to 720p resolution. I do not think that there will be any tears lost for this, though.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: Cisco