It seems the IP telephony industry can’t go one month without hearing from IP phone and phone system provider, snom, which for the company and its customers, is not a bad problem to have.

Last week in Boston, TMCnet had the opportunity to catch up with Mike Storella (News - Alert), COO and director of business development at snom, to discuss how the past year has enabled the company to continue to gain traction in the ever-advancing IP market and how it plans to maintain its position in 2012.

Looking back on 2011, snom has a lot to be proud of with news of interoperability testing, partnerships and countless advancements and additions to its portfolio. However, according to Storella, one of the biggest accomplishment snom has to be proud of this year is getting its phones validated with Microsoft Lync. Integrating Lync into the company’s product line of IP phones has opened up a number of new doors for snom that will certainly continue to expand into 2012.

Even in the growing IP telephony market that is full of competition, snom continues to make a name for itself by providing IP phones and accessories with an additional engineering aspect integrated. While snom may not offer its phones at the lowest price point on the market, its products are certainly not the most expensive either and the saying “you get what you pay for” definitely stands true with the company’s impressive line of IP solutions. 

Unified communications remains the biggest trend in the IP market for the company right now. In an industry where mobile is clearly taking precedence, Storella does not see the UC desktop phone going anywhere anytime soon. Instead, Storella credits the desktop IP phone as the dashboard of the UC environment as an always on and stable device that you can rely on for business use. In an effort to get a complete communication suite on every device, IP phones fit the bill.

When asked if he sees the mobile evolution as a threat to the IP phone provider, Storella laughed. “You can utilize the same relatively inexpensive desktop phone for at least seven years,” he noted. “Companies may be using smartphones and tablets in the workplace, but sometimes that can cause us to become too mobile. I have been traveling with a softphone for years, however, when I am in the office, I want a hardphone,” he said. 

As a number of companies begin integrating their communications into mobile devices like smartphones and tablets to take them on the go, Storella brings up an interesting point. “Sure, tablets will continue to evolve, but from a business standpoint, most tablets are not supplied by companies, they are brought in by employees. Who knows if tablets will even still be a major player in five years.” And he’s right, with advancements to technologies progressing at a rapid rate and as trends continue to change each year, no one technology is promised for the future.

So what can we look forward to from the IP phone provider in 2012? A lot. Storella notes that the company will still remain heavily involved in the Lync space and will release some additional phones that will support the platform in the New Year. He added that eventually, the anticipation is that all snom’s products will be validated with Lync and he also foresees SIP making its way toward Lync sooner than later.

As for predictions for the New Year, Storella sees applications providing more collaboration and integration in the future.  He realizes how fast the app environment is moving and would like to see business apps on more phones. Stay tuned to snom’s IP Phones channel, exclusively on TMCnet, to stay updated on what the company has up its sleeve for the New Year.  

Stefanie Mosca is a Managing Editor for TMCnet, with a particular focus in wireless technologies as well as mobile and IP communications. She holds a master's degree in journalism from Quinnipiac University and a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of New Haven. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page or follow her on Twitter (News - Alert) @stefaniemosca.

Edited by Jamie Epstein