Polycom extends videoconferencing to Xoom tablet

Unified communications vendor Polycom is bringing its consumer and enterprise videoconferencing platforms to the Motorola Xoom tablet.

The company will bundle its telepresence application into the Android-powered tablet, offering services for consumer and enterprise users.

"Motorola Mobility is making great strides in enabling enterprise users, and we are excited to equip mobile workers with effective collaboration tools that improve decision making and accelerate customer response," said Christy Wyatt, Motorola Mobility corporate vice president of software and services product management.

"Leveraging Polycom's innovation and leadership in telepresence, Motorola will help businesses easily extend their video initiatives to Motorola Xoom, thereby expanding mobile collaboration for workers."

For consumers and end users, the platform will support device-to-device calls, allowing Xoom users to run high-quality videoconferencing calls. The service will run over Wi-Fi and (where available) higher-speed wireless broadband networks.

Jim Kruger, Polycom's vice president of solution product marketing, told V3.co.uk that the product takes advantage of Polycom's video codec offerings to give users a better experience.

"We are experts on the video side," he explained. "The experience you are going to get is going to be simple to use and high quality."

The application will interface with the company's unified communications platform, allowing business to connect with office systems to conduct videoconferencing sessions and meetings.

"The business user is going to want to communicate device to device," said Kruger. "But they are also going to want to be able to call back into the corporate network and have a stronger presence than just dial-in audio."

Pricing for the service was not disclosed. Polycom plans to launch the product in the second half of the year.