Channel News and Analysis: Vendors Bet Big on Unfamiliar Markets
The IT industry is in the midst of a mass metamorphosis. Lines are blurring between networking technologies, storage, servers, software and telephony. Vendors that represent the tried and true establishment in one discipline are now making hard-right turns into new, largely unfamiliar and often competitive markets. Read on to see just a few of the major convergence plays of the last year.
Vendors Bet Big on Unfamiliar Markets by Carolyn April
Notebook Notable Embraces UC Toshiba, long identified as a preeminent notebook manufacturer, recently launched a Unified Communications Site, which ties individual UC applications into a single server package. A departure, to say the least. Available through partners, the UC suite enables everything from presence, IM to video conferencing and outbound application calls.
ViewSonic Goes Small School with PC ViewSonic’s made a name with its monitors and displays. In June, however, the company announced availability of its $599 VPC100 All-in-One PC. Yes, PC. ViewSonic is pitching the system’s slim design (35mm thin), ease-of-use, eco-friendly design for any space—consumer or commercial—where space is limited.
Lenovo Embraces VoIP to Go Lenovo’s laptops are pretty well-establishe. But the company recently released new models that take things in a new direction: The new ThinkPad T400s come with features to make VoIP easier than ever, with hotkey access to VOIP applications including teleconferencing and video conferencing applications.
Server Take All—Cisco-Style Cisco’s branching out all over: UC and now, conventional servers. Given the precipitous drop in net-new server sales, Cisco’s launch into the entry-level rack mount space seems somewhat counterintuitive. But the networking giant is confident it can ride its comprehensive platform story to a dent in the strongholds of HP and IBM.
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