I took a little foray into pricing out IP Phones for my home pbx yesterday. $75-$750 seems to be quite a range, so I took a closer look.
Cisco, for example, has different models such as the 7940 and 7960 which seem to only differ in the software. And buying a Cisco 7920 should cost you $500 w/o a license, and $200 more with a license? It seems to me that these prices are substantially inflated. Just to get an idea of hardware cost involved here: - I can buy a 4-port router with built-in firewall, web-server and email-client for $20-$30 RETAIL. That would indicate a hardware cost of $10 max. - I can purchase a Sipura SPA-2000 for $100 -- actual hardware cost should be $50-$75. - I can also purchase a fully featured ADSI speakerphone for $80 retail, with an expected hardware cost of $50-$60. Combine all these pieces for hardware cost of $110-$145 -- I'd think that synergies would push hardware cost under $100 -- and you have all the hardware required to build at least a 2-line IP speakerphone with a nice large display, webserver for config, and enough processing power to run some advanced functionality. You could even add one of the Yamaha sound-chips for downloadable ringtones if you so desire. The 2-line restriction would be purely theoretical, allowing for 4, 6, or even 12 lines to be registered (who really needs more than 3 or 4?). The device could be well documented, opening the door/port for open-source software. Does this sound to utopian, or do my fellow list-members think there is an idea here? How many more PBXs would you integrators sell if the cost was down to $150/station for a business-class phone? How many more features could be implemented with an open-source UA? (Menus, Visual Voicemail, extended CallerID info, Call Delegation, Queue handling, Email, Weather, Reminders, .... ) Could this be profitable? - You bet, I'd guess you could sell a few 100,000 of these devices in the next three years. The design would be open, but protected from clones by virtue copyright law (bootloader and operating system could be proteges). A public company would own the design and contract with a manufacturer. Could this be financed? - I don't think it would take that much -- maybe $10K - $20K to purchase samples and development hardware and software. Engineers could donate time in exchange for revenue shares later. A small investment would be counted toward a purchase of a finished product, a large investment would buy you a share in the company. 200 active members in this list donating $100 each could get a handful of engineers on their way. Where do we get the know-how? - Partner with existing companies like Digium and Sipura. Once the project is complete, they would receive revenue shares and/or utilize their manufacturing resources. Am I dreaming? _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
