Videoconferencing big, big big for Cisco

Think videoconferencing is going to be big? Cisco, the biggest networking company, sure does. Chief development officer Charlie Giancarlo followed up his boss’s declaration that video is the killer app Tuesday by declaring that Cisco’s recently announced Telepresence setup, which (according to Cisco) allows for lifelike interaction, “could be our fastest growing technology since switching — there’s that much interest.”

Cisco CEO Chambers said that the company plans to use the devices to eliminate millions from its travel expenses. Giancarlo, clearly full of Cisco Kool-Aid, declared that Telepresence is “not just better videoconferencing — in fact we’ve banned that word from our vocabulary except to talk about the competition.” And maybe the technology is indeed a see-it-to-believe it kind of thing, but you gotta guess, with price tags starting around $300,000 for basic setups, that most of us won’t be seeing it anytime soon. So the expense-account dinners seem safe — for now.