The Jeff Pulver Blog: Today's Question of the day "What kind of VoIP user are you? Do you prefer Softphones or IP Phones?"

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May 31, 2007

Today's Question of the day "What kind of VoIP user are you? Do you prefer Softphones or IP Phones?"

For the past ten years, one of the biggest questions inside the world of consumer VoIP has been whether consumers would eventually would prefer to place calls from their computers (a "softphone") or would prefer to place phone calls using what would otherwise appear to be a telephone ("IP Phone").

So I was happy to see this from my friend Luca Filigheddu who suggested Today's Question of the Day: "What kind of VoIP user are you? Do you prefer softphones or do you prefer using IP Phones (and/or analog phones connected to an Analog Telephony Adapter (ATA))?

For myself, when I am in the office or in my home, I prefer using “a phone”. And when I’m on the road if using my cell phone isn’t an option, I will use a softphone. But not as a first choice. What about YOU?

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If you have a suggestion for a future Question of the Day please drop me a line.

Tags: Question of the Day, voip, Luca Filigheddu, Jeff Pulver

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Posted by jeff on May 31, 2007 08:04 AM | Permalink

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Hey Alec,

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I've ran the idea by my friend for letting looses a few licenses for "advertising purposes" and he could go for it. Let me know if anyone with pursuable interest is interested.

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Posted by: Arron Alexander at June 7, 2007 12:38 AM

Polycom 430 in my house, Siemens Gigaset 2.4 cordless digital attached to Cisco ATA 186 and Cisco 7960 in my office...

Of course that means..IP phones rules (if you have the money)

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Posted by: Fernando Villares at June 3, 2007 01:19 AM

Polycom SIP IP phone on the desktop, IAX2 softphone on the laptop and HTC Tytn mobile.

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Posted by: Dean Collins at June 1, 2007 12:28 PM

I prefer to use an ATA so any new analog phone can be used and replaced without any problem. I don't like softphones because, first, I need to have my computer on and, second, don't like to be closed to computer when talking (probably not neaded with some adapters).

Posted by: Juan C at June 1, 2007 12:07 PM

Avaya IP phone at work. Works like any other company PBX.

I've tried the softphone app that comes with it, but it's to much of a bother to run simultaneously as the hardware phone, and I can't be bothered with using only a softphone and therefore needing the laptop for calls.

The softphone works fine however and is a great feature for traveleing work. Just VPN in where ever you find connectivity and your office phone is there with you....

Posted by: Gudmann Bragi at June 1, 2007 07:10 AM

I use soft one cause it is more accessible. thought about playing a bit with the Skype phones though

Posted by: Kfir Pravda at June 1, 2007 05:25 AM

I am more in the ip phones, but mostly emails and Instant messengers.

Posted by: Joseph at June 1, 2007 02:41 AM

In my home office I have no 'hard' phones now, only softphones. When I'm in the office, there's a handset connected to the PBX, and I never use a softphone except for just messing about with VoIP products.

Posted by: Martyn Davies at May 31, 2007 07:47 PM

I'm with you, Jeff. I prefer the IP Phone. It all has to do with ease of use. For me, the value proposition of an IP phone is that it just works.

When I'm traveling, the softphone works great and it's convenient. If I have my laptop up and running and I'm working on it, it's pretty natural to use the softphone.

But, the bottom line is ease of use and setup. I'm lazy.

Posted by: Ken Arneson at May 31, 2007 05:31 PM

Softphones — SIP being quite a whimsical thing, I love to be able to debug when it doesn’t work; can’t do that with hardphones (not to mention so many of those devices are plain crap to begin with).

Posted by: Henrik Pauli at May 31, 2007 01:12 PM

When I am at my desk, I love a soft phone. I prefer to use my PC as my access point to everything.

Posted by: Glenn Gaudet at May 31, 2007 12:03 PM

Jeff, good question, and one that definitely has been a constant question within the industry. In my home office where I work, I usually *prefer* to use my hard phones (which are all from Mitel, but, gee, that's my employer) primarily because I usually have too many other things running on my PC that jack up the CPU and cause performance problems for softphones.

However, I have been increasingly using softphones for a variety of tasks and definitely while traveling. For podcast recording, I'm almost always using a softphone (be it Skype, Yahoo!Voice or Mitel's own softphone) and when traveling these days I'm pretty much always using a softphone when my PC's online (and a cell phone when it's not). I think that as PCs continue becoming faster and with more memory, and as softphones become increasingly integrated into other applications and portals, we'll see their usage continue to increase.

In the meantime, though, my personal *preference* continues to be for a hard phone when given the choice (at least, perhaps, until I get a newer PC).

Posted by: Dan York at May 31, 2007 11:37 AM

Out of those two alternatives, my favorite is a third: an IM client. ;-)

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Posted by: Arron Alexander at May 31, 2007 11:06 AM

Definitely a phone (even if IP phone) on my desk or a mobile phone using wifi. On the other hand, softphones, if well integrated into my working environment, are great. I use Abbeynet's Firefox toolbar very often, since I can click and call any number in a webpage easily.

Posted by: Luca at May 31, 2007 11:03 AM

Great question Jeff.

If softphones worked better I would use them more often. I like dial-by-name, the ease and flexibility of the UI, and the way they can integrate with my other PC apps. I also much prefer the headset to a handset.

Posted by: Alec Saunders at May 31, 2007 10:02 AM

May 31, 2007

Today's Question of the day "What kind of VoIP user are you? Do you prefer Softphones or IP Phones?"

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