As an expatriated person, I find myself thinking of home sometimes. Video conferencing with people from the old country is fun, so I thought I’d have a look at the details on Cisco’s new Umi video conferencing unit.

Let me say, I have no idea what they’re thinking here. It’s for home use. It costs $599. Then, you have to pay $24/month for a plan to use it. To call other people who have a Umi.

Because it doesn’t work with Skype, or FaceTime. Or anything other than Google Video chat (which is itself free for non PSTN calls).

So basically, you’re charging as much as a computer + webcam (which you could hook up to a TV), you can’t connect to Skype, and you’re charging a monthly fee for something everyone else is giving away for free.

Let me know how that works out for you…