Grandstream has announced the availability of a new Android (News - Alert)-based HD audio IP phone through its Grandstream Beta Club.

Anyone can apply to the program between October 5 through October 14 to receive a free beta model. The company said that it will select the most experienced testers to receive the IP phone. Grandstream is looking for IP phone testers who have innovative ideas. The company will ship 50 phones by the middle of October.

The phone, based on the Android 4.4 operating system, supports up to six lines with seven participants in an audio conference at once. The phone will serve as a standalone conferencing phone and as an external speaker for the GVC3200 videoconferencing system. It features a 4.3-inch capacitive touch screen and can connect to Skype (News - Alert) or Hangouts calls. The IP phone works over Wi-Fi or Gigabit Ethernet, as well as supporting Bluetooth devices.

While it may seem strange to base a desktop phone around Android, given that the open source platform’s selling point is its mobility, there is an advantage to building IP phones around the OS. Grandstream can build IP phones quickly, as they don’t have to write a mobile OS from scratch. Users also get access to the large number of apps on Google (News - Alert) Play, letting them customize their phones to their needs.

It may also seem silly to just give IP phones away as well, but Grandstream is looking for really experienced testers. Often, the only way to see how a product will really perform before wide release is to have real people use it under real-world conditions. That’s the thinking behind other public beta programs such as Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Windows Insider.

This kind of real-world testing of the IP phones will allow Grandstream to work out any bugs before they fully launch the product to the mainstream enterprise market.