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Office phones face new threats. Will enterprises hang up on desk phones?
Enterprise desktop phones face growing competition from wireless handsets, but they aren't going the way of the typewriter just yet. Mobile phones, already ubiquitous, are now being joined by Wi-Fi handsets and dual-mode devices as popular tools for workers to stay connected. Features that consumers take for granted on their mobile phones, such as call history, text messaging and a wide variety of ringtones, frequently are missing or harder to find on a desktop set.
Softphone clients on PCs, another alternative to desk phones, are gaining more capabilities and generally can work more easily with applications than a desk phone. But as enterprises embrace a new generation of telephony based on IP (Internet Protocol), they're still buying desktop phones, users and analysts say. The new wave of IP wired sets comes as wireless options proliferate. Cisco, Avaya and other major telephony vendors showed off numerous Wi-Fi business phones at the recent Interop trade show in Las Vegas. For employees on the road, there are dual-mode phones that can work with IP PBXs (private branch exchanges) for features such as extension dialing and can get better coverage in the office by switching to Wi-Fi.
New software also can bring mobile-only phones into the PBX fold. In this light, increasingly elaborate desktop IP phones that often are more expensive than wireless devices are coming under fire. "Why does my US$200 mobile phone have ten times the functionality of my thousand-dollar IP phone?" remarked Yankee Group networking analyst Zeus Kerravala. "Desk phones are 50-year-old dinosaurs. They shouldn't be there anymore," said Gartner mobility analyst Ken Dulaney. "All the desk phone does is forward calls to mobile phones." more >>>