New Microsoft Softphone Better Than IP Phones?

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Softphone is seemingly better in call quality when compared to common IP phones. This is the result of a study that was commissioned by Microsoft themselves, so I am tempted to think it might have been biased. However, the fact that the study was carried out by the reputable testing firm called Psytechnics brings me to give some more credits to the results. The study was done with the Microsoft softphone against Cisco-manufactured IP phones.

While testing, the client used was the Microsoft Communicator 2007 softphone, and the server side was run under Microsoft Office Communications Server, which uses SIP-based protocols to offer VoIP call management. In all 32 people tested the systems, noting the performance on audio quality, in conditions that were reportedly as close as possible to reality: both quiet and noisy environments, different network types, etc.

Benjamin Ellis, VP of marketing and product management at Psytechnics concluded, “We were kind of blown away by the results. To see that desktop software-based telephony outperformed an industry standard IP phone is actually quite a takeaway.”

I personally think we need to take these results with a grain of salt. I still think that all potential types of working conditions and environments have not been included in the study. For instance, I wonder how the results will be while users will be phoning on the softphone while at the same time downloading files and checking mail. Anyhow, I believe we will either confirm or readjust the study's results after people have been using the system and commented on it. Let's wait and see.