businessinfomag.uk
magazine
32
Despite mobile alternatives, demand
for deskphones remains stable reports
Tayla Ansell
The deskphone has long been a
staple of the office desk. Today there
are numerous alternative methods
of communication and yet the
deskphone hasn’t disappeared.
Research and consulting company
Frost & Sullivan has monitored the
shipment of IP desktop phones on a
yearly basis and in 2015 they forecast
that while growth rates will be lower than
in previous years, growth is still expected
over the next 10 years. So what is the
reason behind the deskphone’s resilience?
Snom Technology AG, a developer
of business IP telephones, has just
experienced its best quarter in two
years. Head of UK Sales Alison Tetlow
says the biggest influence on market
demand has been the development of
VoIP services and hosted and cloud-
based delivery.
“This model has brought IP Telephony
within the scope of even the smallest
business enabling them to benefit from
the cost and feature-rich aspects of
IP Telephony without the need for a
substantial investment,” she said.
SteveWatts, general manager of
Yealink UK, also singles out cloud
adoption as the key driver for sales of IP
deskphones.
He said: “SMEs recognise the
benefits of flexible and scalable cloud
solutions, which can be financed
through operational rather than capital
expenditure budgets. Removing the
upfront investment associated with
acquiring a traditional telephone system
and spreading the cost over a three- or
five-year term provides businesses with
considerable cashflow benefits. It is this
significant move towards cloud services
that is having such a positive impact on
the growing IP deskphone market.”
Ron Cottaar, marketing director
EMEA at Gigaset Pro, has also seen
growth in the IP phone market.
However, he suggests that overall sales
growth is now slowing. “Against some
expectations, overall sales of deskphones
are stable with IP phone sales showing
growth. However the sales cycle is not
peaking at the moment due to the long
ownership period and maturity of the
product category. Competition from
trends like BYOD and smartphones has
also slowed down sales growth,” he said.
Changing expectations
As Cottaar touches upon, recent work
trends are challenging the position of
the trusty deskphone. Millennials are
used to communicating via mobile
devices, email, social media and instant
messaging and expect to be able to do
so at work too. On top of this, the rise in
flexible working means more employees
are using their own mobile devices for
work purposes both in and out of the
office.
This competition is likely to get fiercer
as true digital natives, possibly with little
or no experience of a deskphone, enter
the workforce. Only 2% of teenagers
use a landline more than once a month,
preferring text, video and face-to-face
communication, according to a new
study by business communications
provider Fuze.
The
App Generation
report, based
on surveys of 5,000 workers across
Europe and 2,500 young people aged
15-18 (the app generation), reveals a big
difference in attitudes to desk phones
and smartphones amongst teenagers
and today’s workers. Teenagers put the
smartphone in fourth place on a a list
of ‘essential items for work’, whereas
adult workers put it in seventh place. In
contrast, the deskphone is a Top Five tool
for current workers, but barely makes the
top ten for teenagers, who regard even a
stapler as more essential.
Hold the phone
Reliable communications
Despite the range of communication
options available and the changing
expectations of younger workers, for now
at least the deskphone remains a reliable
office tool. According to Martin Bitzinger,
general manager enterprise at Mitel, the
deskphone’s simplicity is a key strength.
“A deskphone is always there, ready
to use and working, and provides instant
connectivity and uncompromised audio
quality. No other solution to date has
matched the simplicity and ergonomics
of the deskphone for its use case. You can
just sit at your desk and press one button
and connect without worrying about
things like signal strength,” he said.
For Gigaset Pro’s Cottaar another
benefit is the level of mass adoption and
commonality. “There are many great ways
to communicate, from Instant Messages
to video chat, but the telephone call and
deskphone is still the most common
baseline method that all businesses
maintain...[and] still the device of
choice for longer duration or calls where
reliability and voice quality is paramount.”
Snom’s Tetlow adds that deskphones
have an emotional draw. “The new
communication methods are exciting
and useful and valuable business
tools. However, the fact remains that
when things are urgent, dangerous or
critical, when intense emotions are
involved and we are angry or frustrated,
we immediately revert to the use of
telephony and voice communications.”
SteveWatts,
general manager,
Yealink UK
Telephony
Continued...
Yealink T48G-SFB
A deskphone is
always there,
ready to use,
with instant
connectivity
and
uncompromised
audio quality
