Yesterday, Sony Corporation announced a free VoIP phone service similar to Skype, but with a stronger focus on video conferencing applications.
Called IVE, or “Instant Video Everywhere”, this service is based on Windows software that you can easily download from the Internet. It will be released alongside the new Vaio BX laptop series – the first line of laptops equipped with Sony’s integrated digital camera.
Similar to Skype, IVE will offer a special service for subscribers at a rate of $9.95 per month, allowing users to call landlines and mobile phones from their computers.
As a product developed by Sony in collaboration with GlowPoint, IVE marks the latest effort from the tech industry to realize the concept of “video telephony” in the consumer market. This idea was first introduced by AT&T at the 1964 World’s Fair, but throughout the 1970s, it completely failed to penetrate the market. It wasn’t until the dot-com era, with the advent of high-speed Internet connections, that video telephony “made a comeback.”
While major Internet portals like Yahoo and AOL (part of Time Warner) have long offered video features for their instant messaging services, very few users have taken notice, partly due to insufficient bandwidth to achieve high speeds.
More recently, Skype Technologies SA has promised to introduce a video version of its highly popular VoIP service by the end of this year. Just yesterday, a company with an unusual name, Yak Communications, also launched a similar free Internet phone service with integrated video.
Returning to Sony, the company’s latest move to offer Internet phone services does not mean that Sony Electronics aims to become a telecommunications provider. Rather, the company is simply creating software to stimulate demand for its hardware.
Cam Thi (According to AP)
