* Network World’s IP Phone Buyer’s Guide lists over 10 IP Phones priced between $99 and $400
In his recently published article, “Six Burning VoIP Questions”, Phil Hochmuth poses as his fourth question: why would any corporate IP telephony user need all of the high-end features as outlined, for example, in the spec sheets for Siemens’ OpenStage SIP-based IP telephone. Those include a flat-screen color display, a Gigabit Ethernet connection and an underlying Linux operating system.
Jeff Snyder, a Gartner analyst Hochmuth quotes in the story, contends that most enterprises that are buying the $800-plus, fully-loaded, desktop phones are overspending because the integration with the back-end applications that would make those features most useful is not a cost effect venture at this point in time.
“The most common application people use on phone displays is calling up past-call lists,” Snyder says. “They don’t really have any enterprise applications that merit having a large color screen on the phone.”
But luckily, you don’t have to go that high-end to get desktop IP telephony ties. In fact, in the Network World’s IP Phone Buyer’s Guide, there are over 10 IP Phones listed that are priced between $99 and $400. You can tap into that buyer’s guide to compare and contrast what features you do get for this lower price tag.
Additionally, Network World posted a testing-based study on the various means by which SIP-based softphones can help enterprises bring more value to almost any type of VoIP deployment. Check out those findings here.
