https://medium.com/@edans/do-you-trust-facebook-enough-to-make-all-your-video-calls-through-it-430e20c141a

Facebook has announced the launch of Facebook Portal, a two-size screen for making video calls using a camera that follows callers’ movements, reflecting the company’s mission to “bring the world closer together.” This is not the first venture into designing and manufacturing hardware for the company that acquired Oculus VR in March 2014 and has evolved the design of its virtual reality monitor, but it’s expanding the concept of “relationships between people” that goes beyond the usual use of computers or smartphones, taking Facebook into an area that is tangentially related, but is a completely different business and subject to other rules.

In this new environment, Facebook will encounter devices from the range of so-called smart screens, such as Amazon (Echo Spot and Echo Show) or Google’s, which have struggled, using different strategies, to secure a hold in the growing home assistant market, although devices with a camera and a screen still represent a small percentage of the total in a category that is still more about voice than image. Facebook Portal has a horizontal 10-inch screen and costs $199, while Portal+ has a 15-inch vertical screen and costs $349. The idea of positioning these types of devices as video communication tools, integrating them with Amazon’s Alexa while freeing users so that they can move around while talking could get make Facebook, based on an aggressive strategy an interesting competitor in a segment with considerable growth potential.