Dissent In The ‘Unified’ Ranks

Less than a month ago, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Cisco CEO John Chambers held a joint press conference announcing their intent to cooperate and collaborate more in a team effort to bring to market the kinds of unified communication technologies that consumers and enterprises need. Apparently they still have some work to do on being “team players” and sharing the sandbox nicely with each other.

Earlier this week, Microsoft officially launched their Unified Communications initiative with much hoopla and fanfare. Cisco’s official blog, The Platform, however, followed with a post questioning the value of a software or email-centric unified communications platform. Without specifically mentioning Microsoft or their Unified Communication initiative, Cisco has apparently thrown down the gauntlet to challenge Microsoft in this new venture.

So much for teamwork.