By now we’ve all heard about Microsoft’s moves into the cellphone business with their Smartphone operating system, but what hasn’t gotten all that much attention is that they’re also going to start selling Voice over IP telephone systems for businesses that are integrated into PCs:
The Redmond, Washington, software giant is likely to muscle in on the territory of traditional vendors of private branch exchanges (PBXs) and even threaten the desktop handset, through PC-based “soft phones,” according to some industry analysts. However, Microsoft and some major vendors in that market say they don’t see themselves on a collision course. Microsoft may increasingly provide the platform software for telephony, but more specialized vendors will write the applications on top, they said.
Since it’s aimed at businesses this isn’t something that the average person will ever use (except maybe at work), but it does give us a glimpse of how Voice over IP is changing telephony and all the new applications that can built using it, like buddy lists that let you know when your friends are on the phone.
