One advantage of VoIP phones is that they don’t particularly need to look like conventional telephones. But let’s face it -- phones evolved to look like they do over about a hundred years for a reason. It’d be foolhardy to just toss away the design and start over from scratch.

That being the case, opting for a physical desktop unit can have its advantages, according to officials of Telappliant.

In a post on the snom VoIP Blog cited by Telappliant officials, it was explained that some customers encounter reluctance among their workforce when they attempt to switch from hardware to pure-software telephony.

As we said, phones are the way they are for a reason. People know what they know and they like what they like, and you don’t just decide on wholesale changes one day out of the blue if you want to keep selling phones to people.

"We obviously believe in the future of the desktop phone and we have seen this kind of dedication to handsets in the past, though we have never seen anyone chain themselves to a handset," Telappliant officials say, showing that yes, they recognize what they’re dealing with: If there’s a better alternative to the desktop phone out there, well, people will consider it, but they’re not going to toss it away just because you think it’d be cool for them to try something else. Like, something you’re selling.

As Telappliant officials make clear, they’ve seen reports from customers of events that come close to all-out protest when asked to step out of their phone comfort zone, with employees threatening to boycott the new telephony system if it does not include physical handsets. And snom’s a good example -- they’re known for stylish and modern desktop VoIP phones, having provided softphones for a number of years.

Earlier this month TMC’s Paula Bernier (News - Alert) wrote that snom has evolved to deliver a broad set of IP communications and applications.

The company formally set out in this direction with the introduction of IP PBX (News - Alert) software back in October of 2010. The IP PBX, called snom ONE, provides customers with a software-based IP telephony system that supports all the functionality of snom IP phones.