Putting More Enterprise-Grade Video Collaboration Solutions in the Hands of Road Warriors
Already popular with tablet users, the new software app gives road warriors another way to improve their productivity, remove barriers of distance and time, and connect to experts where they're needed most
BARCELONA, Spain, Mobile World Congress 2012 - Feb 27, 2012 : Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in standards-based unified communications (UC), today unveiled Polycom® RealPresence® Mobile for smartphones, available in early March on the Apple iPhone 4S and soon on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphones. RealPresence Mobile, powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform, is a secure, enterprise-grade video software solution for mobile devices that extends the reach of video collaboration beyond the conference room, allowing mobile device users to easily connect with other standards-based video systems including immersive video rooms, group/desktop systems, laptops, tablets, and smartphones in HD quality.
In October 2011, Polycom first announced its mobile software application for tablets, which now include the Apple iPadTM 2, Motorola XOOMTM, DROID XYBOARD by Motorola, and Samsung Galaxy TabTM 10.1, to extend secure, high-quality HD video collaboration to mobile users. The RealPresence Mobile software application for tablets and smartphones is available via a free download from the Apple App StoreSM and Android Market™, and combined with the Polycom RealPresence Platform provides a true enterprise-grade mobile solution for customers.
RealPresence Platform – the most comprehensive software infrastructure for video collaboration – powers Polycom's market-leading HD telepresence and video solutions across any environment. With its open-standards approach, the RealPresence Platform integrates with hundreds of apps from leading vendors in business and communications, including apps for IM/presence, call control, web conferencing, and mobile and social business. Similar to connecting a smartphone to the corporate email server, RealPresence Mobile can be registered to the RealPresence Platform, allowing customers to enjoy advanced features including provisioning, management, firewall traversal, content sharing, and connectivity to desktop and immersive video room systems, including multi-party calls.
"Polycom's vision is to make video collaboration ubiquitous by delivering easy-to-use, standards-based software to anyone on any device. With more than one billion teleworkers, Polycom RealPresence Mobile – for both tablets and now smartphones – puts video collaboration in the hands of potentially millions more, allowing anyone to visually collaborate with colleagues, customers and partners, regardless of their physical location," said Andy Miller, CEO of Polycom. "Customers want to collaborate from anywhere, and RealPresence video solutions make that possible by seamlessly connecting people face-to-face who are on the road, at home or in the office, in conference rooms or in immersive theaters."
"At NHS Lothian we are focused on delivering the best quality healthcare for patients in Edinburgh and the Lothians, and providing a range of regional and national services for patients across Scotland. Video collaboration is playing a significant role in this. To further enable our healthcare professionals to do this, we are rolling out Polycom RealPresence Mobile, which will allow us to consult our patients flexibly via mobile devices and, in turn, make full use of our IT investment into Polycom videoconferencing solutions. This approach enables us to connect and communicate through a variety of ways and devices allowing clinical staff to focus on providing patient care in a timely and efficient manner. Today's news of Polycom adding smartphones and the Apple iPhone 4S provides us with even more flexibility," said Iain Robertson, head of IT infrastructure and operations at NHS Lothian.
Video Collaboration and Visual Mobile Society
Video collaboration is already recognized as a mission-critical capability for businesses and a solution that improves teamwork, collaborative decision making, organizational productivity, trust, and employee and customer engagement, while also reducing travel expenses. At the same time, the generation entering the workforce today and recent technology advancements are driving a visual mobile society. Driving this trend are: millenials growing up with video applications such as YouTube (3 billion downloads daily) and video chat (11 billion chats by 2015); the proliferation of camera-equipped mobile tablets and smartphones; the advent of 3G, 4G, and Wi-Fi networks; and cloud delivered services.
According to Gartner, total smartphone shipments reached 472 million in 2011, a 53 percent increase from 2010, and now represents nearly one-third of all handset sales.1 At the same time, Gartner remains bullish on the opportunity for the media tablet market, forecasting over 320 million units sold in 2015, with cumulatively over 900 million sold by the end of that year.2 In addition, 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying iPads today, and many corporations are rolling out Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives.3
RealPresence Mobile Features for the iPhone 4S
Featuring an intuitive user interface for individual or multi-party video conferences in HD quality, RealPresence Mobile on the iPhone 4S allows users to view content –such as presentations– by swapping the view between the content and conference participants. The solution delivers the legendary Polycom video and audio for a higher quality, enterprise-grade experience, and allows users to block their video image during a meeting if desired.
New Features for RealPresence Mobile on the iPad 2
In related news, Polycom also announced today software upgrades to RealPresence Mobile for the iPad 2, including the capability to share PDF files from the tablet with other video meeting participants. Polycom plans to make this feature, as well as additional language options, available to the iPhone 4S and Android mobile devices in the future.
Vertical Industries Taking Video Mobile
A number of key vertical industries are increasingly using video collaboration technology such as Polycom RealPresence Mobile to enable the workforce to connect from anywhere at any time:
- In education – Students can stay connected to professors, lectures, and course content, whether in a classroom or at home.
- In government – Mobile responders can analyze situations in real-time with crisis centers and emergency teams, saving valuable time in the decision making process.
- In healthcare – A physician can use a mobile device to collaborate via video with medical experts to streamline remote telemedicine sessions for better patient-centered care.
- In manufacturing – Quality control can have eyes and ears on the factory floor to remotely facilitate inspection, maintenance can expedite repair, and operations can reduce time-to-market.
Demonstrations
To learn more about RealPresence Mobile and the RealPresence Platform, visit the Polycom booth (Stand 2D01 in Hall 2) at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 27-March 1, 2012. RealPresence Mobile features such as calling into a multi-party c
