, where Winge was an executive vice president. In an interview, Winge said he met the Neat team at the beginning of 2019. He’d already been in touch with Yuan, whom he’d known from their shared Cisco backgrounds, about hardware possibilities. “Eric almost tempted me to get back to this industry,” says Winge. “Watching what Eric was doing with Zoom, democratizing video in a way that had never been done before, was very inspiring from the sideline.
For Zoom, the investment in Neat raises the question of why Zoom would change its longtime strategy of remaining fully hands-off and device-agnostic in its relationship with hardware. Until now, Zoom customers have only used true third-party vendors such as Dell and Logitech. “Zoom is the Switzerland of your communications platform,” says Bernstein analyst Zane Chrane.
Neat's first product for hosting Zoom video conferences, the Neat Bar, is now available for preorder. A second product, the Neat Board, will be available for preorder in January.In an interview, Yuan says that Zoom’s investment is more about signaling its commitment and good intentions than a desire to eventually own the hardware itself. “We know customers need the best hardware and software combination, but that’s not our strength,” Yuan says.
Yuan compares Zoom’s potential with Neat to a different Apple product blending hardware and software, the iPhone, and the relationship between Zoom and Neat to Google, with its Android software, and how it partners with hardware makers like Samsung . Both executives trot out a, that less than 5% of global conference rooms were video-enabled at the time, as proof of the market opportunity.
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