VoIP is still perceived as a cost saving technology. Will Microsoft's productivity-enhancement orientation help the VoIP cause? Let us first address why VoIP is seen as cost saving technology in the first place. The first casualty of VoIP was astronomical IDD rate structure. That job VoIP did pretty well. But the first impression stayed on. In its next phase when VoIP got its foot inside the enterprise door, it was welcome inside because you could merge voice and data networks together. So again, a cost saving issue. That VoIP saves you money is engraved in all of us. That it can be a productivity enhancement tool is a major marketing challenge.
Microsoft is certainly not in this game because it wants to save you some money. It has always focused on high productivity features with its products. The industry may rejoice in letting the challenge (of marketing the productivity-enhancement) rest on Microsoft's shoulders.
Will Microsoft be able to change the perspective? Well yes and no. It might have a chance since it has a great reputation. But the incumbent telcos also have great reputation. They have not been able to change the perception so far. The developer community that Microsoft has worldwide is a strength but then platforms like Asterisk also have plenty of developers, and Asterisk has not raised the profile of VoIP as productivity enhancer. Enterprise VoIP is still a SME thing. And SMEs are in it for cost reasons. They get access to those features that they normally would not have with the traditional TDM solutions. Microsoft products too are not industrial grade. So by default they are limited to the SME space and hence limited to the cost savings culture.
And finally, it could just be fate. Once a king, now a pauper. Voice was indeed once the king, but if seen as just another application over a multimedia network, it has to make the compromise. So the sub-standard service perception around VoIP could be another manifestation of being relegated to a ‘just another application’.