Zoom, the company behind the video conferencing software that boomed during the Covid-19 crisis, has announced a new product for those of us who work from home: a 27-inch computer screen.
Zoom For Home, the company’s first hardware product, is aimed at the growing number of people whose remote work involves a substantial amount of time spent on Zoom calls with colleagues, customers, and vendors.
In addition to offering a higher-quality video conferencing experience that many of us have become accustomed to, the large screen features three HD cameras, eight microphones, and a touchscreen for “interactive display, whiteboard, annotation, and ideation.”
Zoom for Home will double as a second screen for users who until now relied on a small laptop for most of their work at home. But it remains to be seen if people can be persuaded to part with $ 599 for that.
Eric S Yuan, CEO of Zoom, said the decision to create the company’s first physical product came “after experiencing remote work ourselves for the past few months.”
“It was clear that we needed to innovate a new category dedicated to remote workers,” said Yuan. “I am very proud of the team for continuing to think outside the box and demonstrate why Zoom is the best unified communications platform that can meet the needs of all types of users.”
The company hopes the launch will mark a turning point for the shift to remote work, from the often rushed efforts to build capacity that characterized the first months of the coronavirus crisis to a more structured effort to provide staff with the tools they need. . work efficiently from home.
“Three months ago, he was making sure employees had the correct ergonomic setup,” said Rich Costello, senior research analyst at IDC. “We have now moved into the phase of making sure employees have the right devices to enable productivity.”
But the launch of Zoom for Home comes after rapid viral growth in March gives way to serious security concerns in April. Yuan committed to a 90-day change, freezing all product development while the company conducted a top-down security audit.
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