I came across an interesting article on Linksys that once again points to the possibility that my prediction that Linksys would enter the VoIP consumer/SMB market with a SOHO IP-PBX just may happen by the end of the year. In fact, in this prediction I stated, "LinkSys will announce this as early as December of this year."
Here's the Linksys story which also cites some interesting Linksys VoIP port numbers sold. I bolded the relevant sections that I think may point to a Linksys IP-PBX by the end of the year..
VOICE-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) is hot, and Linksys founder Victor Tsao has been coolly surprised by the market acceptance for the technology.
'We have shipped over 2 million VoIP ports for the period September last year to May 2005,' said Mr Tsao, senior vice-president and general manager of Linksys. 'This is beyond my expectations.'
'VoIP is absolutely one of our drivers for growth, and its market acceptance will be the driving force,' he added.
Sanjeev Gupta, Linksys' regional sales director for north and south Asia, revealed that in Singapore, its VoIP products are already being sold by StarHub to business users. Consumers however, will have to wait a little longer. Mr Gupta said: 'With the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore's recent liberalisation of VoIP services. . .I'm guessing in the next 90 to 120 days, we will see someone in the (consumer VoIP) fray.'
<Me: Hmmmm, could that someone be..... Linksys?>
Mr Tsao (Linksys founder) said that digital home products were another area his company is working on, but added frankly: 'While the current products are good for the early adopters, I must admit that it's not there yet for the mass market. This is something we're working on and hopefully we'll see more products by Christmas this year.'
<Me: Did I not state in my prediction, "LinkSys will announce this (IP-PBX) as early as December of this year"? Christmas and December, coincidence? I think not! Maybe?? C'mon, Linksys, you know you want to!>
Actually, if you read the article, he was talking more about digital media products like the Wireless AG Media Centre Extender, which is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. I'm still not giving up home on a Linksys IP-PBX though. It will happen. I'd bet my Viper on it. Ok, maybe not.
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News Bulletin: Linksys is a subsidiary of Cisco now, so why is this so significant? Couldn't Cisco simply spin off a baby package of Unity, and have Linksys use it as a SOHO PBX? It's just a quick recompile for the engineers to do now that both companies are one, no?
Yes, Linksys is a subsidiary of Cisco - that's the whole point of my Linksys IP-PBX prediction. Why would Cisco let Linksys develop a cheap, inexpensive SMB IP-PBX that competes with Cisco Call Manager?
That's what makes my prediction so interesting.
Go read the Linksys IP-PBX prediction blog entry for more context:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/linksys-secretly-developing-soho-ippbx.asp
>>Cisco simply spin off a baby package of Unity
Well, I suppose they could, but I don't think it would be cost effective. More likely we'll see a Linksys box that is a "all-in-one" converged solution that includes a router, firewall, IP-PBX, SIP proxy/registrar, presence, and more.
Talk to me in December and see if there is egg on my face. : )