While the title may sound a tad dramatic, Obihai (News - Alert) has a deep history in the IP communications space, and today this manifests in the form of one of the industry’s most complete IP phone portfolios. Catering to both B2B and B2C users, the firm basically developed Vonage’s (News - Alert) CPE and brings an industry-leading level of expertise as one of a few North American IP phone developers. At the recent Editor’s Day Silicon Valley Vice President of Marketing at Obihai Sherman Scholten sat down with TMC (News - Alert) to discuss innovation in IP phones, mobility and why the desk phone is far from dead.

Mobility is a major trend in today’s enterprise working world, while to many this translates to greater smartphone functionality, to Obihai this means  incorporating the mobile functionality in one’s desk phones. Scholten explained that Obihai has, “we’ve eliminated every traditional interface on the phone, and made everything an option...integrated with presence applications,” by leveraging a RESTful API Web firms can create an app environment on the phone’s display and off to the races.

Scholten noted the firm has seen great success in B2B and B2C worlds. Its business phones are built for the cloud—easily deployable and come with support tools. They are optimized for UCaaS—i.e. the programmability of the phones—offering the ability to link with an app in a meaningful way. The user experience is virtually entirely customizable.

In the B2C space, Obihai cut its teeth with analogue phone adapters—what Scholten referred to as the “Rodney Dangerfield of VoIP.” Analogue phone adapters were the beginning of the IP phone, and for Obihai, helped build its brand. Its adapters were built cloud ready, and with easy configuration via the Obitalk app its IP Phones are virtually plug and play.  By leveraging the cloud there is greater visibility, easier troubleshooting and issues can be more easily diagnosed.

The future of IP communications is here, innovation has taken over and a future of seamless customizable communications is here. Obihai is here to help you on your journey.