3Com Unveils Low-Cost Videophone

Santa Clara-based 3Com Corp. introduced its first low-cost consumer videophone, a $449 device designed and built by 8x8 Inc. The Bigpicture videophone works with a television and a touch-tone telephone and uses ordinary analog phone lines. It will compete with the $500 ViaTV unit introduced by Santa Clara-based 8x8 in February and the $650 C-Phone Home sold by Wilmington, N.C.-based C-Phone Corp. All three companies are targeting consumers who want to make video calls using their product with an ordinary television. Both 3Com and 8x8 use video microchips made by 8x8. C-Phone uses a video chip made by Lucent Technologies Inc. In Nasdaq trading, 3Com shares fell 19 cents to close at $43.44; 8x8 rose 31 cents to $14.31; and C-Phone gained 31 cents to close at $9.50.