[jparr]

What gives? Like it or not, every major PBX vendor is now pushing WiFi IP phones instead of proprietary wireless solutions. Most vendors also have softphones for the iPhone, Windows Mobile, and even Symbian. Why does RIM have nothing? There was the half-baked and half-released 7270, which seems to have gone nowhere. Today's phones are much more powerful, most have WiFi, and the PBX vendor support is there. Why must we be left in the cold?

[Dragonball1842]

I don't understand why this matters. RIM doesn't make Cars, Gaming systems, or Pizza either. It's a business model that RIM apparently is not interesting in focusing their resources.

If I remember correctly, Vonage was near bankruptcy just few years ago.

[Branta]

RIM does not play in that market. They make high quality Smartphones for celular connection, not VOIP equipment.

[jparr]

RIM does not play in that market. They make high quality Smartphones for celular connection, not VOIP equipment.

Whether they want to admit it or not, they are playing in this market. Their high quality smartphones are used every day by businesspeople at companies with VoIP PBXes, who have a deskphone on their desk, along with SIP WiFi handsets for in-office mobility. If the option was there to run the SIP code on the Blackberry, that is one less device and one less interface the user needs to learn. When they are in the building and their extension rings, the Blackberry rings right along with it, costing no over the air minutes. They already do the T-Mobile UMA, this seems like it would be much more in-demand than a few home users.

[Xopher]

BES also includes MVS capabilities, which allows a company to use BlackBerries as office extensions. If someone isn't at their desk, their BlackBerry will ring. They can even make calls and have caller ID show their office extension. This is something that BES offers, all without VOIP. RIM isn't missing the market with this, they offer this feature already.

Now, I do agree that VOIP is something that would be a great addition to a BlackBerry. They already have UMA features with T-Mobile. AT&T doesn't offer the service - that is a carrier issue. CDMA carriers don't have a WiFi BlackBerry yet, so that isn't an option with them.

It would be nice to have UMA/SIP capabilities outside of the carrier, though.

[jparr]

BES also includes MVS capabilities, which allows a company to use BlackBerries as office extensions. If someone isn't at their desk, their BlackBerry will ring. They can even make calls and have caller ID show their office extension. This is something that BES offers, all without VOIP. RIM isn't missing the market with this, they offer this feature already.

Now, I do agree that VOIP is something that would be a great addition to a BlackBerry. They already have UMA features with T-Mobile. AT&T doesn't offer the service - that is a carrier issue. CDMA carriers don't have a WiFi BlackBerry yet, so that isn't an option with them.

It would be nice to have UMA/SIP capabilities outside of the carrier, though.

The MVS solution is cool, however it requires about $10k of hardware and software, which would be unnecessary if the phone had a native SIP client, and could connect directly to the PBX.

[lnichols]

What I would like is a SIP client that uses a BES connection and a SIP trunk to a SIP enabled PBX to allow VoIP calling out of a companies PBX. VoIP calls should be compressed down to around 64 kbps even with the included AES encryption overhead that the BES uses. This could be used with the data connection.