Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Cisco VoIP Phones
In a very interesting interview Cisco CTO Charlie Giancarlo lays out their strategy - "hard" VOIP phones. Hey this makes so much sense:
"The phone adaptor is just at the beginning and I believe it's just a transitional device. What we are going to see soon are hard IP phones as well as Wi-Fi phones. The majority of phones that are bought in the home are cordless. With a WiFi VoIP phone you get that cordless functionality but, because its IP right to the handset, you have the opportunity for so much more.
You'd have an unlimited number of lines, you could link into your buddy list and dial right off your buddy list. You could have instant messaging. You can have push-to-talk [walkie-talkie functionality]. A whole variety of new functionalities opens up as soon as IP goes all the way to the handset. We definitely see that occurring.
We'll launch the first Wi-Fi phones this year. The consumer hard phones [that you plug directly into an Ethernet cable] will start this year. Probably first in the small business context, where the additional functionality of extra buttons and more lines is worthwhile. But we are also going into the home within 12 months."
"The phone adaptor is just at the beginning and I believe it's just a transitional device. What we are going to see soon are hard IP phones as well as Wi-Fi phones. The majority of phones that are bought in the home are cordless. With a WiFi VoIP phone you get that cordless functionality but, because its IP right to the handset, you have the opportunity for so much more.
You'd have an unlimited number of lines, you could link into your buddy list and dial right off your buddy list. You could have instant messaging. You can have push-to-talk [walkie-talkie functionality]. A whole variety of new functionalities opens up as soon as IP goes all the way to the handset. We definitely see that occurring.
We'll launch the first Wi-Fi phones this year. The consumer hard phones [that you plug directly into an Ethernet cable] will start this year. Probably first in the small business context, where the additional functionality of extra buttons and more lines is worthwhile. But we are also going into the home within 12 months."
