In this age of VoIP, it’s still surprising to some people that desk phones are still being used. Especially if you are a VoIP head, you may be thinking that everyone should just be using softphones at their desks.
But predictions about the demise of the desk phone are premature. I found this blog from 2015 which shows the growth. And I also found some intriguing information from a post just last month about continued IP phone growth. While there is no specific information because they want you to buy the report, the title is “IP Deskphones Market Growth Is Skyrocketing Beyond Predictions”. So I’m going to take that to mean unit shipments of desk phones are still growing.
This doesn’t mean the headset market is NOT growing. In fact, it’s really growing.
Why are both growing? It’s probably safe to say both are growing because the UC systems themselves are growing (both cloud and on premise). Basically, you need endpoints and not everyone is going to move to having just smartphones connected to the UC system (at least not yet).
But why doesn’t everyone just go for softphones and headsets?
Well, for one thing, people assume a desk phone will be more expensive than a headset. A quick look at VoIPSupply shows that corded IP phones range basically from $90 to $140, while Jabra headsets are in the $200 range. So it’s not cheaper to just move to headsets, assuming you want to get a reasonable headset.
And for another thing, some businesses just want to have phones on the desk. It’s something comfortable because there has always been a phone on the desk. And it’s easy— people know how to use them. It can also be easier for IT since many of the desk phones (such as Sangoma phones) autoprovision back to the UC/PBX system. So it’s a snap to set up.
Also, many of these phones have conference ability, which comes in handy because you don’t need 3 people from the same building from the same hall in the building calling into a conference call from their headset. (It might actually be good to, you know, actually see each other and talk together. So go to someone’s office for a change!)
Viva la desk phone! Sangoma offers a range of desk phones that autoprovision to the associated UC/PBX system.