FIRST VIRTUAL CORP. OFFERS AN ATM ACCESS 'RETROFIT' FOR LEADING DESKTOP VIDEOCONFERENCING SYSTEMS

摘要

ATM vendor First Virtual Corp. looks at the current videoconferencing market as a perfect application for ATM technology. Desktop videoconferencing, defined as videoconferencing with the use of a personal computer, is projected to grow from a worldwide market of $604 million in 1996 to one of $1.29 billion in 2001, according to a recent report, Desktop Videoconferencing: Audio/Visual Collaboration via the PC, published by International Data Corp. (IDC). Businesses of all types are expected to take advantage of the technology. IDC projects the business segment of the videoconferencing market will grow from 268,000 units sold in 1997 to 600,000 units by 2001. Another research firm, Sage Research, confirmed this corporate interest in videoconferencing in a recent survey. "We did a study on desktop videoconferencing a couple of months ago," says Jeannine Linehan, product manager at Sage Research. "In a survey of 270 organizations, [we found that] 19 percent of organizations currently use it, and an additional 49 percent plan on deploying it."