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Microsoft Predicts VoIP Prices Will Drop 50%
During his Keynote address at Voice Con, Jeff Raikes, President of Microsoft’s Business Division predicted that in three years VoIP solutions would cost half of what they do today. He argued that proprietary, hardware-based systems would be replaced by open, software-based solutions. Microsoft’s Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 is not slated to be available as a standalone solution for a number of years, but Microsoft is confident companies plan to replace their IP-PBXs with Microsoft OCS servers at some point in the future.
In January 2007, InfoTrack conducted a primary research study of enterprise and SMB decision-makers to assess their level of interest in the new Unified Communications products that Microsoft announced in 2006 and Microsoft’s increased commitment to this market. The results included:
- 23 percent indicated that they would prefer a complete software solution from Microsoft, including unified communications applications and the call control software that runs on the IP Telephony server
- More than half said they would prefer the Microsoft version of seven out of eight specific UC applications, compared to the versions offered by the major IP-PBX vendors
- 19 percent intended to delay any decision on implementing IP Telephony until they had evaluated the Microsoft UC products and another 21 percent planned to conduct trials of these products.
Comments and feedback welcome, please email Jill Morgan at jmorgan@billingworld.com.
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