Agreed. I think the other part of it is organizational blindness, as well. They reacted to OCS in the same manner that Microsoft reacted to the iPhone. They

Agreed. I think the other part of it is organizational blindness, as well. They reacted to OCS in the same manner that Microsoft reacted to the iPhone. They were the established player with a mature platform and here came along a service that did things radically different and lacked, what they perceived, as the major features that customers in that space were looking for so they simply laughed at the product. Companies certainly didn't flock to it like people flocked to the iPhone (a trick I think only Apple can pull off), but by comparison, Cisco's offering provided a far less integrated experience at a greater cost and once those back-end features got worked out (or were no longer relevant), they had a surprise competitor with (at the time[1]) a much lower price. Couple that with the fact that people are far more comfortable with making video/voice calls from a PC due to Skype (consumer) and the idea of getting rid of your desk phone[2] and taking it with you on your laptop for all of your "business phone needs" isn't so radical anymore. [1] At the time, there wasn't even a comparison. It took far fewer servers, cheap (by comparison) licensing that gave you dial-in conferencing for the cost of the server and the call's cost (no additional per-minute surcharge for the privilege of using a bridge). I haven't priced a Cisco equivalent in a while so that may all be different, today. [2] You can still have a phone with Skype for Business (and they're great phones from what I've seen) and many companies still pop those phones on desks. I worked at Global Crossing when we switched, though, and we required a departmental waiver to get a physical phone (to save money). People did get decent, certified, headsets, but we made the switch the way people take band-aids off and there was a lot of bleeding in the first couple of months. It died down once people got used to it and within a half-year, meeting rooms went empty in favor of calls with desktop sharing (one can multitask and no need to walk down the hall carrying your laptop). Laziness always wins. :o)