Always good to have your perspective. The VAR Guy thinks traditional desktop phones will be replaced by dual-mode smart phones that let you jump between Cellular calls and VoIP calls. That single phone will roam between your office, your business travel and your home.

But it’s going to be a decade-long transition.

One thing that I have learned recently is that users do not care about VoIP (as a transport mechanism). All they really care about are the features that Unified Communications provide.

Tristan

I agree that Windows is too shaky a platform to be your only phone line. (No IT guy will be happy to hear that the BSOD is now coming to his phone system as well as his desktops…)

However, what I take away from MS is: “the expensive phone is dead — long live the cheap phone”. Whether a softphone or a cheap plastic SIP phone, the point is that the intelligence (and the revenue) should not come via a plastic box — it should come in the form of software.

The move to UC is a classic IT paradigm shift. Value moves out of hardware — which is commoditized — and into the software stack. It’s great for low-cost UC software companies like ours (Unison) but very very bad for what I call the ‘metal and plastic dinosaurs’ like Nortel etc.

I will keep you updated as we roll out our Unison partner program.