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Windows PBX & UC: Looking back to 2010, Looking forward to 2011


What happened in the Windows phone system community in 2010? Some that occurred to me.:

Jan - Polycom Releases Affordable OCS/Lync Stand Alone Desk Phone
Jan - Free Blink SIP Softphone for Mac, Windows & Linux Introduced
Feb - First Windows-based Phonesystem Book Co-Authored by Matt Landis & Rob LLoyd
Mar - 3CX Phone System v9 Released
Mar - Interest in Hosted OCS/Lync Implementations Increases for SMB
May - Microsoft Response Point Killed: Not Hosted & Lync Will Serve SMB
June - snom Releases First DECT phone, paging device & SIP phone compatible with Lync

June- 3CX Releases Free iPhone and Android softphones
Sept - Lync Server 2010 Released
Sept - snom Releases Lync 2010 Compatible snom 300
Oct - snom ONE IP Phone System Released- 1st Free, Enterprise Grade Windows PBX
Nov - Windows Phone 7 Introduced (my experience with wp7)

What Are Some of My Predictions for 2011?

Microsoft Lync Will Gain Attention from SMB's in 2011
-SMB has zero entry resistance with Hosted Lync via Office365
-Hosted Lync 2010 via Office 365 has the right features with Public IM connectivity, Media outside firewall, Desktop Sharing and multi-person video and audio conferencing.
-Lync 2010 1 Server Installation has dramatically reduced cost & complexity
-Lync hardware devices have dropped to very affordable levels: snom 300 $129, Polycom CX500 $299.

snom ONE IP Phone System Will Continue to Capture Market Share from Other Windows PBX Players
-snom already is talking to this audience & has great connections to SMB via D&H/Asterisk awareness
-small companies are looking for bundled solution with "one neck to ring" at affordable price
-snom giving snom ONE with phones (10 extensions) will be a formidable foe for Windows PBX vendors that depend on revenue from the soft-pbx itself
-Can work effeciently in on premise or hosted mode today
-Great & easy replacement for problem prone systems from other vendors
-Very feature rich (good fit to replace small & medium sized legacy phone systems)
-Easiest phone provisioning in the industry: just plug the phone into the network!
-Extremely stable (enterprise grade)
-Multi-tenant and hosting ready today
-Extremely affordable

Windows Phone 7 Will Break Into the Conciousness of Non-IT People in 2011
-WP7 has a vast developer pool that is adding app's at astonishing rate with no slow-down in sight
-The Samsung Focus device 4rth top device in Wired Magazine best new devices of 2010
-Microsoft has an unlimited bucket of money and are in this to win. (think Xbox)
-WP7 pulling together Skydrive, Xbox, Office, Zune and more makes an extremely compelling device.
-While WP7 has some small technical catch up to do--the core design

Lync 2010 Awareness Will Push Traditional PhoneSystem Vendors to Integrate PBX & Handsets More Deeply into the Desktop Experience
-Currently no one knows how to use their deskphone's advanced features
-With Lync 2010 users can actually figure out how to use advanced endpoint features--other PBX user's will demand this as well
-Lync 2010 ubiquity in Sharepoint, CRM, ERP apps, Outlook will force other vendors to become part of the desktop experience more deeply than "click to dial"

Well there are my random thoughts about what will happen in 2011. Maybe you have some to add?

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