Note: a lot of conjecture here since I’ve had no official update from snom yet. Please note a lot of personal opinion/speculation here.
After all the “Lync Qualified” and “Lync Optimized” news out of snom last week you wouldn’t think the same company has more up it’s sleeve—but it does.
Photos of a new snom phone series, the 700 series, have “leaked” out of Berlin. This new phone series appears to be aimed at replacing the aging snom 3xx series and sports a bundle of definable buttons much like the snom 3xx series. We’re seeing 2 models that appear to be the snom 760 and 720(?).
The snom 760 appears to have a color LCD display comparable to the current snom 821 and 12 BLF/definable buttons. My guess is that the 8xx series will continue to cater to the “upscale/executive” market while this 760 will be a more entry level unit.
Below we see a model which I expect to be the 720. Smaller and no color display. It does sport a whopping 18 BLF/definable buttons. From the tiny photos I can’t see if either model has lamps to go with the buttons or no, but lets hope they do. (and while I’m hoping can I hope they are mutlicolored to correspond to Lync available/busy/away/dnd status’? I will not get hopes up on that front-just wishful thinking)
Will the 700 series have the snom UC Edtion firmware? I would expect it will. The Microsoft Lync Certification is a process that each model number needs to goes through so if this model is not “Lync Qualified” out of the gate I expect that will come later.
I believe snom is looking to build on the success of the snom 300 which it has noted is their biggest seller. In the snom 7xx series I see snom targeting a phone for the masses that combines old world “button phone” with snom UC Edition Lync connectivity. While a lot of Microsoft Lync purists may “pooh-pooh” buttons, I think this phone could be a great model to bridge people/mindsets/boardrooms the whole way from key system PBX’s to Microsoft Lync unified communications.
Update! More Details Emerge:
It looks like some of my guesses weren’t that bad.
http://www.ip-phone-forum.de/showthread.php?t=239293&page=1
| snom 760 | snom 720 | |
| screen | 3.5” QVGA | 3 Line b/w |
| USB | 2 USB | |
| WLan Ready | Yes | Yes |
| UC Ready | Yes | Yes |
| LAB | Gigabit | Gigabit |
| Keys | 12 bi-color | 18 bi-color |
| HD Speaker | Yes | |
| Virtual Keys | Yes | |
| Conference | 5 users | 5 users |
| Address qty | 1,000 | |
UPDATE #2 9/19/2011 – I’m hearing “vibes” that the snom 760 and 720 may become “Qualified for Lync” by as soon as November. If so, this would most likely mean these models are based pretty closely on the 8xx series. And if so, that should also mean that there is not as much “dust to settle” in the firmware as there could be.
What do you think? I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments here or on twitter at http://twitter.com/matthewlandis
I've seen them in real - they look / feel quite nice.
ReplyDeleteThere will / could be another one called snom 710 (possibly the low-end model "replacing" the 300).
And I can confirm that the upper image is the 760 and the second one is the 720. I can also more or less confirm the specs from what I've been told by snom and see in a marketing brochure I've got.
We've been told that they should be available sometimes at the end of this / beginning of next year.
I found some "snom" images for your viewing pleasure :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snom.com/fileadmin/redakteure/user_upload/1_Produkte/2_Telefone/snom7xx/
hey steve, thanks for those great pictures.
ReplyDelete