1) Create as much hype as possible to make the public think that IP and VoIP is the latest and greatest, much like "digital" was the last buzz word. Recruit IT people (by creating a product that will appeal to them and give them job security) to convince their zombe superiors that IP is a must have. Superiors have no idea what this means but since they wouldn't dare argue with the IT department they shell out the bucks.
2) Elminate the competition from your own product line. Discontinue perfectly good legacy products so customers will have to buy your IP product.
The telecom manufacturers felt that they were becoming stagnant with products that would last for years with little or no attention. There had to be a way to increase revenues and so they adopted what the computer industry was doing. Easy enough since the public has already been conditioned to accept that kind of crap.
They saw how the computer industry has created a cash cow with planned obsolescence, poor reliability, high maintenance and releasing products and software that's full of bugs (buy it now, we'll fix it in a later release when you buy it again) and did the same thing.
You are right- The average telephone user has NO freakin idea how the phones work, and really don't care. They have no idea that they are being manipulated into spending their money or into replacing perfectly good equipment.
-Hal
CALIFORNIA PROPOSITION 65 WARNING: Some comments made by me are known to the State of California to cause irreversible brain damage and serious mental disorders leading to confinement.
