Samsung to Launch Web Video Phones
Aaron Ricadela
Hannover, Germany
3:30 p.m. EST Thurs., March 19, 1998
Samsung Electronics plans to introduce a pair of Internet telephony products this summer.
The company showed its Web Video Phone, featuring two-way video, e-mail and Internet access capabilities at the CeBIT '98 trade show here this week. The phone will likely appear as two SKUs: an executive product and a low-end consumer version, said Young Soo Ryu, Samsung Electronics executive director of information and communications.
The executive SKU, priced between $700 and $1,000, would feature two-way video conferencing capability via a built-in camera, but lack e-mail functionality. The consumer device, priced under $500, would exclude the video conferencing features and allow users to make domestic and international calls through their ISP for the price of a local call, Young Soo Ryu said.
Users of the executive device will achieve a maximum transmission of 15 frames per second on video calls, whether via POTS lines, ISDN lines or ethernet connections, said Young Soo Ryu. But at lower bandwidth, they'll need to trade frame rate for picture quality, he said.
The Web Video Phone includes a 5.6-inch color LCD display and keyboard, and supports the International Telecommunications Union's H.323 protocol for Internet telephony. |
