Philips Electronics NV has announced its intention to enter the video conferencing market and is to introduce a host of products catering from the low to high-end markets. Philips claims it is trying to generate greater interest in video conferencing and believes it is entering the market at the perfect time to capture a great deal of new business. The company will introduce the first line of products, MatchView in the US and Europe by the end of the quarter, before releasing it to the Asia Pacific and South American markets. MatchView 230, 330 and 430 have been designed to offer standard, enhanced and high-end functionality, respectively. Philips has based its new video conferencing products on the H.263 standard, intended to offer greater bandwidth efficiency for better picture quality and operates at 128Kbps. The company has established a new division, Philips Video Conferencing Group, to based at the company’s Multimedia Center in Palo Alto, California. The company claims it will be able to bring more affordable video conferencencing systems to customers and is under the impression that its move into this space will help speed further technological development within the sector.
