Time To Re-Invent the Phone

June 22, 2011 by Dave Michels

Many people seem ready to shove the desktop phone off the edge of the earth, but not very many actually do it. The problem is its a multiple choice question without the right answers: What to use for voice at...

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By Dave Michels

Dave is an independent analyst and founder of TalkingPointz which is focused on enterprise communications. In addition to this (free and paid) content on TalkingPointz, he contributes to industry sites, can be found at major industry events, and provides advisory services to vendors and financial analysts.

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Steve June 22, 2011

At ShoreTel we believe that the end user is ultimately the one to make the choice – vs. the IT dept. Thus, we believe the answer is all of the above and provide mechanisms for end users to do just that – use the tool which is best suited for them: ShoreTel's desktop, soft phones and the ShoreTel Mobility solution give you the flexibility.

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Dave Michels June 22, 2011

Thanks Steve,
ShoreTel does offer a broad set of choices. That wasn't my direct point.

I would like to see hard phones evolve faster. We all thought we had great cell phones until Apple changed the game, and that needs to happen with desktop phones. They are all pretty similar in function and purpose – though yours come in nicer colors and shapes. Only the tech has changed, not the way we use the phones or what we expect of them.

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Anonymous June 22, 2011

a shameless plug for Shoretel…while true its nothing that the rest of the field is not already doing.

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Scott June 27, 2011

Well said, but… the BIG guys don't "get it" and the little guys are still struggling to get funding and marketing. Last year I tried hard to find a new phone set standard for my company. Every "open" SIP phone fell short from features, quality, price, usability and design. (I can want a sexy phone, can't I?) To add further insult, the licensing that the IP-PBX vendor (not to be named big networking company) added to use a non-proprietary phone killed any ROI that even a "Radio Shack" phone would've been expensive.

Money aside, design and usability are key. This is how Apple won. I wish others would follow suit. Polycom had a USB phone that was simple and sexy, but it was only for M$ OCS. SNOM has sleek 870 but it was a uber confusing to operate. Sorry, but the sad truth is that the average user is not a phone geek. They just want the @&*! thing to work. All the @&*! time and without a phonebook sized user manual.

Will Avaya, Cisco, Microsoft and the others every be truly "open?" Will SIP ever be a true SINGLE standard? Will I ever win the lottery? I guess the chances of all of the above happening are about the same. The good news is that there is still some hope. Convergence may kill all of us old-timers off, but the next generation can push the industry further. I like hybridization. Just look at what IPTrade is doing with a modified tablet. Plantronics' Calisto is a great little all-in-one box (or will be when it fully supports Cisco IPC). The future phone won't be remotely close your father's 2500 sets!

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