14 DAY TRIAL // Logitech, world's leading manufacturer of webcams, just announced that it will power the Video Call feature in the new Windows Live Messenger platform, unveiled by Microsoft Corp. today.
"We?re very excited about our continuing work with Microsoft, and the momentum that we?ve established with MSN," said Junien Labrousse, senior vice president of Logitech?s Entertainment and Communications Business Unit. "Video calling, with Microsoft?s extensive customer base, has proven to be a breakthrough application for live video communications. Microsoft?s new integrated Live interface makes it easy for people to see friends and family members online and spontaneously engage in a video call. We expect this will help personal video communications to become even more popular."
Logitech representatives stated that the company has collaborated with Microsoft in order to develop a technology which is said to deliver high-quality, full-screen, fully synchronized voice and video calls. Logitech provided the same audio and video technology for Microsoft?s Video Conversation feature, part of MSN Messenger since April 2005, and the company has supported the popular webcam feature in MSN Messenger since March 2003.
Logitech's representatives added that the manufacturer intends to include one-click access to Windows Live Messenger capabilities on its QuickCam.
It seems that, since the original introduction of Video Conversation, MSN Messenger users have conducted more than 500 million video calls. In fact, video usage on MSN Messenger is currently growing faster than voice-only usage - in January 2006, users participated in video calls that lasted a total of nearly 1.1 billion minutes.
"The mission of Windows Live is to deepen our customers? relationships with the people and the information that are most important to them - and live video communications is an important piece of that," said Martin Taylor, corporate vice president, Windows Live and MSN at Microsoft. "Logitech?s industry-leading video and audio technology is integral to the success of this application."