"Microsoft planning VoIP softphone? Here’s why it makes sense by ZDNet's Russell Shaw -- I don't have any knowledge that they are, but I am beginning to think it could happen.The Seattle Times reports that during a morning keynote today at WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference), someone named Mr. Gates will show a Longhorn-prototype laptop with an auxiliary display screen built on the cover that would:"Display a few lines [...]"
Microsoft has been building some form of "Softphone"(a software program capable of making an telephone like audio call -- I assume is the working definition?) into all its products since Windows 95 so the predication is pretty safe in the broad sense.
There are a number of problems with "Softphone"s though, one is that to connect them to POTS phones(a requirement for a long time in the forseeable future) requires hardware and infrastructure -- which costs. No one so far has found a business model that allows this to happen in the general market (Skype maybe but the jury is still out). Microsoft and partners and a number of others have played with in this area for years with no result. A second(perhaps reason why no viable business model has developed) is that the reliability and quality of the calls (at least over the general internet) has generally relegated such calling to hobby or toy status (again Skype seems to be breaking that mold slightly).
