Various Thoughts, Opinions and Findings About Newly Released snom ONE IP Phone System

snom has released a very strong software based phone system offering call snom ONE. snom ONE is based on pbxnsip which has been in developement for about 10 years. snom ONE is an extremely mature and stable software based phone system (Windows, Linux, Mac). Our experience is that it will run months on end (on Windows!) with absolutely no "fiddling". Okay, It's stable.

It is also incredibly feature rich and snom is making that a key message to customers: snom ONE is a feature rich phone system...and you get ALL the features for one simple price. The breadth of features is no joke--snom ONE is loaded: mobile phone integration, call recording, user initiated call recording, BLF, vm to email, IVR, wakup call, OCS/Lync integration, Exchange integration, remote phones, call center features like whisper, call barge and listen, agent queues and on and on. snom's slogan "one system all features" is not an idle comment. This product is loaded with features.

I think the free edition (10 extension/no feature limits) and the licensing simplicity on the paid edition will be well received and appreciated by SMB market. snom also points out that if you have multiple locations you can use the 10 extension free edition at those locations while HQ may have a paid edition.

The Benefits
Some of the benefits I see from the move from pbxnsip to snom.
-Brand recognition
-Marketing and Mindshare
-Support Responsiveness can be improved
-Developement Dollars
-complete snom phone system packaging
-Name will be Easier on the tongue. (it probably won't become a verb like lync but...)
-Pricing matches SMB needs perfectly

What Will snom Need to Work at on the snom ONE phone system?

Features: Operator panel, PC User Client and Instant Message useability.
Ease of use: When you install snom One you can largely have a 10 extension system up and running in 15 minutes server wise. Gateway configuration will need to made more automated. Currently PSTN or T1 gateway configuration is entirely manual. Considering this is one of the trickiest things to get setup on a software based phone system I believe this will need some work.
Support: snom has stumbled a bit on support coming out of the gate but is quickly remedying the lack of a findable, dedicated forum and documentation for the snom ONE product. I also think adding accessible  and timely telephone support option (even a paid option) will be necessary to have a confident following.

Other questions you might have I've included below:

Q: will g729 be included?
A: Yes, in paid editions. Yellow=5, Blue=10. (source)

Q: Which phone handsets will be supported?
A: Only snom handset are supported (source)

Q: Will other UA's/SIP devices be locked out?
A: According to snom spokesperson: "Only a certain number of "third party" devices are tolerated on the different versions." (source) snom ONE product manager, Jonathan Greenwood, has verified that that free edition will limit non snom UA's to 5, yellow=10 and blue=40. snom is quick to note that if you need multi-vendor support there is still a pbxnsip solution that supports multi-vendor phone handsets and UA's.

Q: What will the pricing of snom ONE phone system be?
A: The pricing is extremely affordable. 10 extensions=Free! Yellow/20 extension=$895 and Blue/Unlimited extension=$1495 MSRP. I am noticing that distributors that carry snom are SKUing up numbers with ETA of November 12, 2010.

Q: Will snom ONE require yearly maintenance to stay on the latest version?
A: No definitive answer yet. One comment indicated updates will be gratis. This would match snom's current model related to snom handset firmware updates. The lack of snom ONE maintenance or renewal SKU's at distributors would seem to support this. On the flip side this is quite unusual to have no upgrade cost for a pure software PBX. (examples: Microsoft Lync, 3CX, pbxnsip)

Q: Will pbxnsip license holders be able to migrate to snom ONE?
A: They can but will loose the ability to pnp provision or connect phone handsets other than snom so it doesn't make a lot of sense to make that vertical move.

Q: What size company is snom ONE designed for?
A: According to snom the sweet spot is 4 to 150 users. It was interesting to note that over 150 users snom expects companies to be looking at something like Microsoft Lync. That is quite interesting and fits in with snom's OCS/Lync compatibility which I think is a great move.

Summary

My opinion is that pbxnsip joining snom is a great move. I am hoping that the snom will be able to find a good balance between "openess" & "closedness" in snom ONE and be able to provide responsive support in some fashion. snom ONE is an extremely sound, secure and feature rich product. I am excited about more people getting to know about this very good product.

Get your copy of snom ONE at:
http://www.snom.com/products/ip-pbx/snom-one-free/

Don't overlook our video training and other resources for snom ONE:
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/p/snom-one-resources.html