April 25th, 2005
Microsoft planning VoIP softphone? Here's why it makes sense
I don’t have any knowledge that they are, but I am beginning to think it could happen.
The Seattle Times reports that during a morning keynote today at WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference), someone named Mr. Gates will show a Longhorn-prototype laptop with an auxiliary display screen built on the cover that would:
"Display a few lines of information, such as the time or a message, similar to the small displays on some clamshell-type cellphones that show time and call information without having to open the device."
OK. "What ifs" alert, but let me explain my thinking.
Ain’t a big leap from a UI capable of displaying a message from a cell caller to one which displays a message from a VoIP caller.
These laptops, like most others, will, of course, be Wi-Fi enabled.
And the softphone? Well, the "soft" stands for "software," a family of competencies which Microsoft’s taken a couple of stabs at over the years.
And, ya know what? Softphone could be integrated into or with Outlook? Ya think?
With this functionality, plus the fact that such a laptop would already have built-in wireless connectivity- why not a Microsoft branded softphone with VoIP over WiFi capability?
And, with that message display capability on the cover auxiliary display screen?
Longhorn’s due in late 2006. If Longorn laptops had a branded Microsoft VoIP softphone built in, would you use it? TalkBack to us.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
