PictureTel aims for return to limelight with new products.(Brief Article)

ANDOVER--PictureTel Corp. finds itself in a slightly unusual position: playing the underdog.

A longtime leader in the video teleconferencing equipment field, Andover-based PictureTel saw its market share erode in the past several years.

But with new management in place and a new line of products just hitting the market, the company is looking to wrestle back a sizable share of the market it used to all but own.

"If you look back three years, all you saw was PictureTel," said Gene M. Holmstead, an analyst with H.C. Wainwright & Co. in New York.

Indeed, from its founding in the late 1980s by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates, PictureTel developed products designed for the new wave of telephone networks and quickly became the dominant player.

But in recent years, main competitor Polycom Inc. of Milpitas, …