The market for Asterisk-based IP-PBX appliances has grown significantly in the last three years. We're seeing appliance-type systems from all sorts of large and small vendors alike. From Digium's Asterisk Appliance, to the Trixbox Appliance, Fonality's PBXtra, the Switchvox appliance... the list goes on and on. Each device has a custom-developed GUI that usually all ties back to the same Asterisk code on the backend. What these appliances do provide however, is usually a support contract or point-of-contact in case things go horribly wrong.

How many ways can vendors package, and re-package the same fundamental idea, with the same fundamental code running in the background, without saturating the market full of ten different versions of the same thing? What happens to the installed user base when one of these smaller start-ups bites the dust because of market oversaturation?

Do we really need ten versions of the same thing competing against each other? In comparison, the offerings from the big vendors such as the Avaya IP Office, and the Nortel BCM, run on significantly different platforms, and therefore offer different services. This strategy makes sense, because they are not the same product.

I honestly am just a bit worried about the SMBs that invest thousands of dollars in an appliance from a vendor that might not last five years. Does anybody else see this as a growing issue?