Avistar Communications Corp. in San Mateo, Calif., today announced Avistar C3, a software-based system available for small and large companies. Avistar offers videoconferencing as a hosted service or as software priced per user, with pricing similar to the monthly cost per user for BlackBerry service, Avistar officials said. That service can range from $40 to $60 per month, according to some analysts.

Avistar C3 supports industry-standard end-user capabilities, such as USB 2.0 and Bluetooth headsets, and VoIP speakerphones. For the kinds of videoconferencing applications that Avistar and many other vendors support, a user can install a webcam on a laptop or PC along with a microphone and speaker to communicate in a videoconference in real time. Many applications now support the use of chat alongside whiteboards and other data, with multiple video screens for various users in different locations.

Avistar, which provides videoconferencing to 15,000 users, has been in business for nine years and had $12 million in revenue in 2007. Its other products are hardware-based and proprietary, but the new C3 software is based on industry standards, including SIP and H323, said Simon Moss, CEO of Avistar since Jan. 1. Among Avistar's larger customers is Colgate-Palmolive Co., according to the company's Web site.

The user interface to C3 can come from Avistar, or it can be integrated with IBM Lotus Sametime or Microsoft communications products, according to Avistar.

Moss said one clear benefit of using industry standards is that a desktop user running C3 could participate in a room-size videoconferencing system using equipment from Cisco Systems Inc. or others. Ira Weinstein, an analyst at Wainhouse Research, said C3 is impressive because it represents the first time Avistar has taken a totally digital approach. For customers operating C3 themselves, the software is designed to run on Radvision Ltd.'s video bridge, he said.

"They are bringing strong capabilities in a market for desktop videoconferencing that's trying to grow," Weinstein said, noting that the desktop videoconferencing market has been trying to expand for many years -- at least as far back as the mid-1990s. The big difference now is that major vendors are pushing the unified communications systems at the desktop, along with voice and data, to put desktop videoconferencing within the reach of corporations and end users, an Avistar spokesman said. "At some point, desktop videoconferencing will become important," Weinstein said.

Moss said Avistar doesn't consider itself a competitor against other videoconferencing systems, including large, room-size systems, because C3 will interoperate with them. However, Weinstein described VidSoft Inc., as well as Microsoft Corp., Cisco, Tandberg and others as potential competitors.