Do We Need a Desktop Phone at all?

By Tsahi Levent-Levi

Categories: Clients

June 29th, 2009

I’ve already stated my view on this: Desktop phones trump PC soft clients.

But do we really need desktop phones? While I can’t think about “living” without one at the moment, there are those who think otherwise.

A smarter person than me, Dave Michels, commented on that post I wrote:

I think there is an option 4 which is even more likely.

Clearly the desktop will take a percentage of some voice traffic – mostly associated with collaboration and video applications (can you recommend any?). And I agree, that the desktop is unlikely to replace the phone for basic “honey, pick up some eggs” uses. But the desktop phone is doomed none the less.

The problem is the desktop phone has not kept up. In fact, it offers the exact same value proposition to us as it did to the previous generation. The technology has changed (per your voip is dead post), but the value, features, use, remain unchanged.

10 years ago a cell phone was an alternative to the deskphone. Price and quality traded for mobility. But the cell phone is now much more – it is our directory, our clock, our email, our Twitter, our SMS, etc. Now we defiantly use our cell phones right at our desk, because it is easier.

As our love affair with the cell phone grows – 3G, 4G, more apps, etc. and our desktops become more powerful for voice apps – the one thing that will get squeezed is the desktop phone.

Throw in a virtual number service, and some hosted PBX features and it becomes a tough sell for the desktop phone. They either get smarter and die (your media phone, but the cost/value prop won’t be there) or they go dumb (see recent post of mine on dumb PBX) or they go away.

That seemed a bit too farfetched to a provincial guy like me, but then again – I live in that small secluded island called Israel. One of our product managers just returned from a trip to Europe, where he met people from a large enterprise. What he said was, that wherever he went, there was something missing, but he couldn’t explain to himself what – until they entered a conference room, and the guy from that company plugged his mobile phone into a speaker and dialed. Yep, that company had no desktop phones. None. They use mobile phones instead.

So I have to take my words back – there’s a 4^th option, as Dave puts it, which is mobile phones (as desktop phones).

But there might also be a 5^th option: if you’re in to visual communication – something I believe is starting to really happen all around us – then you might just replace that LCD display you have on your desk with one that can be used as your Media Phone/Desktop phone/LCD monitor/Personal video conference client. That’s exactly where I think we might be headed with the new VC240 display, that was just launched by Samsung and RADVISION.

And why would that be any different than a Desktop phone?

• Because you’ll need an LCD at your desk anyway.
• If you need video, then it’s easier to deal with than any software solution (no installation, no drivers, no peripherals, no extra hassle).
• If it can do video, it can also do voice.
• It connects to your PBX or UC solution.

So yes, the desktop phone is probably doomed. Who will be the one to take that final swing will be interesting to see.