Cisco quietly let go 50 engineers and other people responsible for their low-cost SPA line of desktop IP phones (SPA300, SPA500, etc.) - I believe back in November. The IP phones targeted the SMB and I'm told it's a $600 million business for Cisco that Cisco just decided to let go to focus on the "enterprise". Must be nice to say no to $600 million! They're still selling the SPA line of products (and may even still be manufacturing them), but there is no more development on the SPA line of IP phones. Considering new bugs and exploits are found on many IP phones, this isn't good news.
In one of the BYOD sessions I moderated at ITEXPO, the panelists discussed virtualizing your corporate profile so that you have to identities on your mobile device (business & personal). I expressed my concerns that users like a unified mailbox and won't like having to switch to a business profile to view corporate email. The pull of corporate interests (security) vs. user's expectations of frictionless and painless use of their mobile apps will be an interesting thing to flesh out over the next 18 months. The panelists had some interesting thoughts on this, that if you missed this session you missed a good one!
Yealink was my favorite designed booth at the Las Vegas ITEXPO (very Apple-esque), but now competitor Grandstream has upped their game with an impressive booth of their own at the 2014 Miami ITEXPO. Check out these photos:
Obihai has a new color IP phone they're launching very soon and they gave the first public demonstration of their new phone at ITEXPO. It's designed with service providers in mind since it uses Obihai's cloud-based provisioning model for easy plug-and-play. It's based on a unique serial number (possibly the MAC address) and the phone automatically queries Obihai's cloud provisioning server to get all the relevant account info such as SIP credentials.
Of course, power users can also purchase the phone directly online and provision the SIP credentials themselves. Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSP) have the option of "locking" the device or letting you move to another ITSP. I believe Obihai said it supports up to 24 SIP registrations. Here's a sneak peek of the phone!
I met with Xorcom and they had some interesting news. They basically solved a long standing problem in Asterisk, namely the changing of telephony interfaces. When you remove an interface it messes up the numbering. Several years R&D team combined with Digium to solve this challenge in Asterisk and completely redesigned the way Digium numbers telephony ports. Now can plug, unplug, reboot and not change integrity of the system. Each interface has its own unique numbering and it works with any DAHDI device.
They also announced Blue Steel PBX. The Blue Steel product line is a stand-alone, pre-configured, out-of-the-box IP-PBX featuring Xorcom’s CompletePBX distribution. Blue Steel features hot-swappable server-grade hard disk drives, hot-swappable power supplies, and built-in power for up to four Astribanks.
It supports various combinations of telephony ports both internally and via Astribank units connected via USB2: up to 960 PSTN/analog phones ports, up to 16 E1 R2 / T1 CAS PRI ports, up to 1,000 users, and up to 550 concurrent SIP calls.
I also met with Digium and they announced some news at ITEXPO. Here's my notes. To go cloud they first partnered with VocalCloud and then acquired them. They did the Switchvox Cloud that Digium now sells at $35/seat.
Switchvox 5.8 now has advanced peering tools inside it. The newest version of Outlook integration now allows you to change presence status from within Outlook.
Announced at ITEXPO they now offer an interesting risk free trial with 0 upfront cost. They give you 5 licenses, ship you 5 Digium phones, and give you a toll free number! You don't even pay for shipping!
One benefit of Switchvox and Switchvox Cloud is that it's the EXACT same UI for customer premise and cloud-based version. They offer a channel program with 10% commission. Further, they also told me under NDA (now expired) an IP phone rental option, thereby eliminating CAPEX. They sell the Digium D40 @ $8/month, D50 @ $12/month and the D70 executive phone @ $18/month. The rental model has FULL support / warranty on the phone forever. So if dies, ship a new one. February 3rd is when this will be available. Channel partners can be 1st level support or send to Digium, which is nice.
WebRTC has a nice-sized pavillion on the show floor I'm hoping to check out soon. Stay tuned for more from ITEXPO!
android apple asterisk at&t blackberry cell phone cisco dell digium e911 facebook fcc google google talk gps im ip-pbx ipad iphone ipod itexpo ITEXPO lync microsoft mobile phone open source outage phone review sip skype sony unified communications verizon video video conferencing voip vonage wireless xbox 360
- Apple (280)
- Bittorrent (2)
- Call Center and CRM (48)
- Computer Hardware (183)
- Computer Software (71)
- Gadgets (650)
- Google (225)
- Home Entertainment (263)
- Internet (173)
- Linux (111)
- Microsoft (376)
- MovableType (48)
- News (187)
- Personal and Humor (118)
- Politics (9)
- Reviews (246)
- Security (2)
- Social Networking (42)
- Sports/Outdoor Technology (9)
- Tablets (32)
- Technology and Science (355)
- Unified Communications (471)
- VoIP (2285)
- Wireless (584)
- p2p (20)
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
Featured Videos