Microsoft Plans Small Biz Phone System

The phone system, code-named "Response Point," is now in beta testing and will be available later this year via OEM partnerships with three hardware vendors: D-Link Systems, Quanta Computer and Uniden America.

The Response Point system supports VoIP as well as traditional phone lines and includes a voice-activated user interface, according to Microsoft.

The system "is going to bridge the gap between the telephone and your computer," said Kevin Turner, COO of Microsoft, according to a transcript of his keynote remarks Monday during the Microsoft Small Business Summit 2007 at the company's Redmond, Wash., headquarters.

The disclosure of the forthcoming product launch is the latest in a series of barbs traded between Microsoft and sometimes-friend, sometimes-foe Cisco as both companies work to establish dominance in the unified communications market.

Last week Microsoft unveiled plans to buy voice services player TellMe Networks in a deal valued by outside estimates at $800 million, only to be trumped the next day by Cisco's $3.2 billion agreement to purchase collaboration services vendor WebEx Communications.

Microsoft and San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco both partner and compete with other in the unified communications market. Cisco is one of several IP telephony players to offer interoperability with Microsoft's messaging and communications applications. But it was Nortel Networks that got the nod to team with Microsoft last summer to form the Innovative Communications Alliance, a deep partnership that involves joint development, marketing, sales and services activities.

Cisco offers SMB-focused VoIP wares via its Unified Communications Manager Express product line and also through its Linksys subsidiary.

NEXT: D-Link's channel plans