with exciting new - Oser Communications Group

Consumer Electronics Daily News Friday, January 9, 2009 21
THE WEBAROUND DEVELOPS
INNOVATIVE, AFFORDABLE
WEBCAM PRIVACY PRODUCT
Vickie Childers, CEO of The
WebAround, (in pod 225) gives an
overview of the company’s unique product.
CEDN: Tell our readers a little bit about
the WebAround.
VC: We are a female-owned business
from Michigan. We have only one
product—the WebAround, which was
actually inspired during our full-time
jobs as nurses. The WebAround is an
affordable, collapsible, lightweight disc
of fabric that is used to provide privacy
when using a webcam.
CEDN: Describe the WebAround’s
current marketing strategy.
VC: We are currently marketing online
by targeting webcam users. Recently, we
acquired university licensing, and we
hope that will give our product more
appeal to a younger demographic.
Currently, we are working on partnering
with related firms that create a product
that is enhanced by
the WebAround.
CEDN: What do you
anticipate to be your
greatest challenge in
the year ahead?
VC: Our greatest challenge is getting the
WebAround into the mainstream market.
The current economic situation has affected
all of us, especially small businesses
like ours. Still, we will continue with our
plan of working toward acquiring licensing
accounts, partnering with other firms
and enhancing our existing relationships.
CEDN: Who are your target end-users?
VC: The best part of our product is that
everyone who uses a webcam is our enduser!
From the CEO who is web-conferencing,
to the teen who is video-chatting,
to the parent sending a video email for
the first time—they all need privacy, and
our WebAround is their answer.
CEDN: How do you see the next year in
terms of economy, sales, technology and
product evolution?
VC: We see great growth potential for
our product in all areas. The economy has
put a crunch on all businesses. Many
companies have moved to Web-conferencing
to allow employees to work from
home and to eliminate the cost of business
travel. Privacy and professionalism
Continued on Page 88
MICROBOARDS’ PRINTWRITE
SOFTWARE ADDS EXCITING
NEW FEATURES & BENEFITS
Mitch Ackmann, President and COO,
talks about the PrintWrite.
CEDN: What is Microboards showing
this year that is exciting?
MA: One of the most exciting things we
have going is PrintWrite, our disc publishing
software for exclusive use with
Microboards disc publishers. It’s very
easy to us, but still has a ton of power
user features. Everyone from the receptionist
to the IT manager will love using
PrintWrite. It’s currently shipping in all
Microboards disc publishers. Existing
customers can request a complimentary
copy from www.microboards.com.
Our MX, CX and GX publishing systems
now are available with BD recorders. For
those that don’t need
to have printing, but
want automated
duplication, our
HCL systems hold
1,000 discs and have
seven recorders—
quite a powerhouse
if you’re looking to do large volume
duplication of Blu-ray discs. Additionally,
we have a full lineup of Blu-ray tower
duplicators with three-, five-, seven- or
10-drive configurations.
Finally, we rolled out a set of flash duplicators
built on the same platform as our
CopyWriter optical disc duplicators. A
single tower can record up to 11 thumb
drives simultaneously. Unlike some other
systems, as soon as a thumb drive is done
recording, you can put a new one in and
start recording instantly in each port of
the duplicator. This provides true
asynchronous operation—significantly
improving throughput.
CEDN: How do you feel the market is
responding to your new offerings?
MA: With the ‘format war’ over, we’re
starting to see a shift to Blu-ray. The
large capacity is certainly a draw for
Continued on Page 88