Zoom formed a new business unit this week named Zoom for Home, which will supply remote workers with purpose-built video conferencing hardware. As part of the announcement, Zoom unveiled its first piece of hardware, an "all-in-one personal collaboration device" dubbed the DTEN ME.

over half of US executives expect most of their employees will work remotely post pandemic
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For $600, video conferencing connoisseurs can buy the 27-inch touchscreen tablet, which boasts three built-in cameras and eight microphones. The device offers a number of features geared specifically toward remote workers, including interactive whiteboarding, co-annotation, and one-touch meetings. It can also function as an external monitor. 

Zoom's push into hardware is intended to boost customer loyalty amid the shift to long-term remote work. Enterprise subscribers who buy video conferencing hardware purpose-built for Zoom's services will have a harder time switching providers down the line, as they're further enmeshed in the Zoom ecosystem.

Zoom for Home also signals a tacit acknowledgement that, for many, remote work is here to stay — Zoom announced last week that it will start selling enterprise-grade communications hardware through a hardware-as-a-service model, but the market for those products is limited while most offices remain closed due to the ongoing pandemic.

Because spending on video conferencing services is up now, when remote work is at an all-time high, Zoom stands a better chance at deepening loyalty with a product designed for remote workers rather than office spaces. And looking forward, more than half of US executives (55%) expect that most of their employees (60–100%) will work remotely at least one day per week after the pandemic subsides, according to the PwC Remote Work Survey from June 2020. 

Zoom needs to boost customer loyalty to stave off Microsoft and Google, but expanding into hardware will only do so much to help. Zoom took an early lead in the pandemic-driven video conferencing boom, but Microsoft and Google have since encroached on its dominance in the market, matching Zoom feature-for-feature. Making matters worse for Zoom, Microsoft and Google together account for virtually the entire enterprise office suite market, which gives them a significant advantage over Zoom since they can prominently feature video conference integrations within their enterprise ecosystems.

Zoom's expansion into hardware can help it stave off this threat, but it certainly won't be a game-changer: Global spending on IT devices is projected to decrease nearly 16% this year, according to Gartner. A $600 video conferencing device likely won't be an easy sell for cash-strapped companies, especially one that simply enhances, rather than transforms, the remote work experience.

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