Videophones are ready for business

CNet has an article on the "plunging" prices of videophone systems, heralding a drop to under $500.

These are hybrid phone systems that wed old phone system technology with video, in an attempt to create a bridge between conventional phone systems and Internet-based protocols.

I would not spend any time or money on these systems. There are already much less expensive all-IP based systems. I routinely use an inexpensive but high quality iSight camera with the very good videophone software that Apple provides free on every Macintosh.

For the cost of one station using these hybrid systems, you could buy four iSight cameras and give them to three friends, family, or business colleagues--if you and your associates use Macs.

Right about now, some of you are about to click to some other site, having little patience with Mac users. The larger point is this: what's available now on the Mac will be available on the Wintel platform in a year or so. I'm not trying to argue Macs are better, I'm trying to illustrate that these relatively expensive hybrid videophone systems won't last long in the face of less expensive and easier to use alternatives.