Network World Inc., an International Data Group (IDG) company, announced their fifth annual Network World Best of the Tests Awards on Monday. The 2003 awards went to 14 enterprise network products, including Apple’s iSight Web cam and iChat AV conferencing software, which won the Cool Tools category.
“These products are the network industry’s stellar performers as they survived the rigorous, hands-on testing of at least one, and up to three of our expert testers,” said Christine Burns, director of the Network World Lab Alliance, which is a coalition of industry experts, network integration consultants, independent test labs, and university lab personnel.
This year’s winners went through 14 months of testing. The Network World Lab Alliance started out with over 240 enterprise network products that were narrowed down to 61 finalists before the final 14 were chosen. In addition to Cool Tools, Network World handed out awards in 12 other categories: Anti-spam, VoIP, LAN Management, Messaging/Collaboration, Network Gear, Operating System, Security Infrastructure, Security Management, Storage, WAN Management, Wireless (which saw a tie), and SOHO/SMB.
Writing about iSight and iChat AV, Burns and Network World senior reviews editor Keith Shaw note that “Apple wasn’t the first company to make a Webcam, it just made one that’s better than others we’ve seen.” They go on to say: “A Web chat over a broadband connection (on both endpoints) looked and sounded like a real-time videoconference with equipment that costs thousands of dollars.”
Visit Network World Fusion’s “Best of the tests” page to discover all the winners and learn why they were chosen.
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