Radvision reaches for mobile video-conferencing, targets Apple iPad, iPhone to grow share

Videoconferencing and teleconferencing continues to be hot topics of late. With Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) about to launch its iPhone 5 iteration this week, even more attention is being focused on the mobile side of the equation, where interoperability of a variety of mobile devices and operating systems has caused a flurry of activity in the mobile app market.

Radvision, (Nasdaq: RVSN), best know for its video infrastructure telepresence support, this morning unveiled its own app for iOS devices (see this story), looking to increase the appeal of its own high-end video conferencing platform in a U.S. market that has been owned for years by Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM).

Bob Romano, VP for enterprise marketing at Radvision, said the company's customers have been clamoring for more than a standalone mobile solution; they wanted something that would interoperate with their telepresence rooms and desktop endpoints and wanted it to be full-featured.

Enter SCOPIA Mobile V3.

The app is a big step for Radvision, which intends to continue with other rollouts for more devices.

"Regardless of the UC platform or video devices installed, we intend to support them," Romano said. "We believe in the model that clients and desktops should be free, that way you can extend the conference to everybody. It's the same model as WebEx, the host pays and the people they invite come free."

Currently, it's available through the Apple Store, "and we'll do the same with Android," Romano said.

Radvision is hoping SCOPIA Mobile V3 will expand their presence in the market, one they realize is going to be tough to crack.

"We know it's going to be difficult because Cisco and Polycom have almost a duopoly in the U.S.," he said. But Radvision, which has admittedly started slowly in North America, has been pushing hard, building out its sales and marketing infrastructure and working to gain reseller and customer attention.

"We are investing in this market and we feel we are on the upswing," Romano said.

Radvision is no stranger to Cisco. Before Cisco bought Tandberg, Radvision was a major supplier of its telepresence technology.

In fact, Romano said, "at one point, our most significant customer was Cisco. We had an 11-year relationship and we provided all of their video infrastructure."

But after Cisco bought Tandberg, the relationship began to play out.

Before the Tandberg acquisition, Cisco had been a reseller of Radvision technology; that part of the business made up about 40 percent of Radvision's revenues. Radvision has said it expects revenues from Cisco to continue near the baseline level of approximately $2 million on average per quarter for the remainder of 2011.

Radvision has been in the marketplace some 20 years, they were a pioneer in IP-based MCU severs IP gateways.

"We were a technology provider to nearly every endpoint out there," said Romano. "Our go to market has been through partnerships, OEMs or resellers. Almost all of our business was through partners."

A couple of years before Cisco's Tandberg buy, Radvision decided it had an opportunity to expand its own product line. It started by developing an executive desktop product with Samsung; it also debuted a room system a year ago.

"We're looking to have a broad portfolio of endpoints," Romano said. "We already have the best of breed infrastructure."

Radvision thinks there's plenty of room in the $2.5 billion industry, especially with service providers that it sees as less concerned with the nameplate on a product.

"We have a robust platform that's designed to be scalable and we think that's a good fit for service providers," Romano said. "Service providers tend to be less brand aware, less inclined to have to buy the market leader. They'll get the best technology, and that's what we think we have."

Romano said the flexibility of the mobile app, it allows, for example, a second and third splash screen to show when Scopia launches, could help on that end.

"It allows the service provider to be in control," he said.

Radvision's technology has served as a foundation for telepresence for two decades. Whether it will be enough to differentiate itself from other solutions already in the space, not to mention those still in the pipeline, remains to be seen. Targeting service providers likely will help it step onto the dance floor. Will it attract enough partners to make it significant? Two words: Cisco and Polycom make it problematic.--Jim