Not so long ago, Hollywood made us think that the future in communications involved talking into the video phone. In fact, these scenes – often included in Sci-Fi movies – blended it in so well with everyday life, the video call happened with an easy flip of a switch. Sometimes, even standard equipment was unnecessary.

In the 1980s, the video phone was introduced to the consumer base, giving users the opportunity to make that visual call and incorporate this element into the standard conversation. The phones didn’t catch on, however, and the typical user preferred to still answer the phone without worrying about how they might appear to the caller.

The same is not true today, however. As much as we rejected the video phones of yesterday, the capability is at our fingertips with smartphones and tablets. Even in the corporate environment, video conferencing is gaining ground as technology improves and prices come down. For users accustomed to the IP phone, IP video phones are a new way to enable business quality visual collaboration.

Yealink (News - Alert) is making this possible for the standard business user with its IP video phone. Complete with an open API, HD voice, a clear and right-sized touch screen, three-way video conferencing, total directory solution and easy installation, this phone helps today’s business take the next step in collaboration capabilities. As 40 percent of people report that they respond better to visual information compared with plain text, companies leveraging the IP video phone can drive better engagement.

Such capabilities are increasingly in demand as the use of the Internet to support communications continues to be a preferred channel. In fact, so much traffic traverses the global Internet that Cisco’s (News - Alert) Visual Networking Index predicts traffic will increase threefold in the next five years. The company anticipates that at some point in 2015, global IP traffic will reach 1.0 zettabytes per year. This traffic represents individuals sharing information, machines talking to each other, business conversations by way of IP phones and so much more.

For those who rely on communications to accomplish their tasks for the day, the integration of audio, video and advanced applications into the IP phone will open up another world of opportunities. As this phone is replaced by the IP video phone, a new breed of communications will accelerate workplace productivity and drive optimal efficiency. It will also eliminate the costly travel that takes place in order to support face-to-face collaboration. 

Immediate benefits may be hard to achieve as users have to change the way in which they communication and collaborate when video is made part of the mix. Once the benefits become apparent, however, the adoption is likely to be swift.