Cisco's Umi still dead. As a doornail. Really

Last week, Network World blogger Larry Chaffin confirmed that Umi was pulled from the shelves of retailers and that Cisco had in fact quietly and unceremoniously buried the product and moved on. This in short made believers out of the blogosphere this week. 

The sale of Umi

"During we are ending the sale of Umi, the Umi service remains unchanged. Existing clients will continue to be able to use the service to make calls to other Umi subscribers or to Google video chat accounts."

When it was introduced in October 2010, Cisco's Umi cost $600 for equipment plus a recurring charge of $25 per month, on top of what consumers already pay their service provider for broadband Internet access. Analysts were quick to pan its steep price, especially when free webcamming services like Skype are, so then, free - and only 20% of broadband-enabled households use the free stuff.

It didn't help. Umi was in substance DOA. Shifting Umi to business collaboration and at that time ultimately killing it were mere formalities, ceremonies to confirm and to mourn its stillbirth. Old news lives longer than a terminally ill product.