Isaac Asimov’s 1964 predictions of 2014 are scarily accurate, particularly when he said “communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone.” While he hit the nail on the head with video, he didn’t predict the success of the IP phone, but as we know it, the IP phone is doing rather well in our era.

Research tells us that 8 percent of phones shipped in 2012 were IP-based and this figure may now be closer to 50 percent, according to Connection Telecom. That’s a rather significant jump in a year, and is a pretty good indicator of where businesses are going with their communications.

With the new era of Unified Communications (News - Alert) (UC) presenting many integrated communications modality options and related soft clients, the future of the desk phone is rather bleak.

With their benefits, it’s no wonder IP phones are slowly becoming a common item in offices. IP Phones can be accessed and checked/changed from a remote network if appropriate permissions are given by the network administrator. So making configuration changes and maintenance are a no brainer.

The once higher cost of IP Phones had been the most important factor prohibiting their mass adoption, however, as research suggests, that is clearly shifting as more enter the market and more businesses are adopting these instead of the desk phone.

From low cost to portability and feature-rich solutions, a business’ reputation relies on not good, but excellent communications. IP phones come with features like call forwarding, call waiting, voicemail, caller ID and three-way calling, so IP phones are a pretty impressive investment for companies looking to upgrade their communications.

Taking advantage of its working principle that is based on the advanced VoIP technology and the wide range of benefits it offers, IP phones can replace the conventional telephones totally in the near future and also prove to be highly cost effective, because there are no toll charges associated with the IP phone apart from the Internet usage charges.

You’d be hard pressed to find any tech site that isn’t touting the many benefits of having an IP phone system. From portability to feature-rich solutions, a business’ reputation relies on not good, but excellent communication having these and so much more.