The Hold Music Heard Round the World: Celebrating 100 Million Cisco IP Phones

Guess what? We’ve just sold our 100 millionth Cisco IP phone! Back in 1998, we at Cisco had the bold idea to build IP phones that used our switching infrastructure to make phone calls. Initially, traditional telephony vendors looked at this technology and dismissed it, thinking it couldn’t be done. After all, there were millions of phones in businesses that required dedicated wiring for quality calling. How could a company like Cisco consider bringing something to market that runs from the same network as computers? Along with the challenges of QoS there were also all the legacy PBX features, security issues, and hundreds of features that organizations required to conduct business to contend with.

What a Difference Two Decades Make

Fast forward to 2020: Cisco is now the world’s leading telephony vendor, owning market share that no previous vendor has ever had in this space. Today, our technology has been adopted by customers faster than any previous voice technology. The Cisco IP phone brings new innovation to the table – with features like controlling the blinds and lights in conference room with the phone or providing the network connection for your computer – it’s a game changer for the industry.

What do 100 Million IP Phones Equal? Connection.

Can you picture 100 million IP phones? That’s greater than the population of many countries! But what’s even better is that we’ve connected people. Voice communication remains the number one form of communication around the world. The business world runs on Cisco – banks, hospitals, schools, retail, and even in the most secure parts of government. Cisco IP phones continue to operate throughout the world, delivering secure and reliable phone calls every time. There’s no fear of how to work the device, just a simple user experience.

It Takes a Village

Now we all know that becoming a global market leader doesn’t happen overnight, especially for devices. It takes time. A lot of time. At Cisco, we’ve never been afraid of new ideas. And it takes a product team that works hard to create something that customers will love. From ideas thrown around in a brainstorm to engineers figuring out how to create a product and bring it to life, it takes a village.

Innovation Over Time

We’ve continued to innovate while never sacrificing the security or quality of our IP phones.

Recently we launched the next generation Webex Room Phone. It’s designed for today’s collaboration so you can join a meeting without even touching the device, wirelessly share your screen or a specific app, and even improve room productivity with digital signage. This is especially important in the remote and hybrid environments we work in as part of our new normal. The Webex Room Phone helps connect remote employees with their in-office colleagues to collaborate and stay productive in real time.

To commemorate our 100-million milestone we’ve developed a special edition IP phone that only a select few customers will receive. This device is as sleek and modern as it looks with a platinum finish, cordless handset and full-color screen.

Help Us Celebrate!

While we can’t offer the special edition IP phone to everyone, we CAN offer musicians and bands the opportunity to enter a contest to compose new hold music. Although our original hold music, Opus No. 1, is a cult classic, we’re challenging the music community to bring it! Along with bragging rights, the winner’s composition will be heard globally on all Cisco UCM IP phones for one month.

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