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With new software, headsets are outsmarting phones

With new software, headsets are outsmarting phones

By Anne Eisenberg, New York Times | Updated: 5 June 2012 02:20 IST

Highlights

Headsets are staples for call-center workers, travel agents and many other people who have to talk frequently on the phone. With a headset to listen and speak through, both hands are free to work, and a shoulder needn’t stiffen to cradle the phone.

Headsets are staples for call-center workers, travel agents and many other people who have to talk frequently on the phone. With a headset to listen and speak through, both hands are free to work, and a shoulder needn't stiffen to cradle the phone.

Now, headsets could make many office landline phones unnecessary, as businesses decide to route calls through their office computers.

Companies can save money by simply buying employees headsets instead of desktop phones, said Tavis McCourt, a managing director and analyst at Morgan Keegan, who follows the Internet telephony market. Software like Lync from Microsoft makes it possible to use the Internet and your computer to make phone calls.

The computers common in most offices aren't ideal for conducting a conversation, said Gregory Burns, a telecommunications analyst at Sidoti & Company, an equity research firm in New York. Desktop computers can have built-in microphones and speakers, but the conversations can distract people in nearby cubicles, just like those on speaker phones.

All of this has created a business opportunity for headset manufacturers, which are now ready to offer sleek new models that plug into desktops, laptops or notebooks for quiet conversations and conference calls. Some of the new headsets switch easily among desk phones, computers and even cellphones.

"Put on your headset, and it gives you access to whatever device you choose to use," said Bob Hafner, a managing vice president at Gartner, the marketing research firm in Stamford, Conn. The move toward PC telephony will gain ground quickly in coming years, he said, as people increasingly communicate by computer, clicking on the names of people they want to reach, for example, instead of dialing them.

Still, computer calling won't work for everyone in the office of the future, Mr. McCourt said. Dialing with a mouse, for example, isn't as fast as using a standard phone. But many employees use their phones mainly to receive calls, or to reach others within their organizations. In such cases, he said, a headset that communicates with the computer will serve well.

Plantronics, a headset company in Santa Cruz, Calif., will offer a wireless headset, the Savi 730, this year that can manage calls whether they are on a PC, a desk phone or a mobile phone, said Karen Auby, a company spokeswoman. The headset is compatible with many office software systems, including ones from Cisco, I.B.M. and Microsoft, she said. The price has not been set.

A stylish new wireless headset, the OfficeRunner, made by the German audio company Sennheiser and offered in the United States by Headsets.com in San Francisco, lets people communicate as far as 400 feet from their phones, said Mike Faith, chief executive of Headsets.com. The headset ($299.95), which made its debut last July, is the fastest-selling product at the site, Mr. Faith said. It can work with most phones, he said, and with PCs or Macs by connecting the base to the USB port. (This will let you listen to music, for instance, on your computer between calls.)

People who want to use a headset with an iPad can buy the Jawbone Icon ($99). The headset also works with Macs that have Bluetooth, said Jenny Noyola, a customer service representative at Headsets.com.

Jerry Plant, who is deaf in one ear and wears a hearing aid in the other, bought an OfficeRunner in part because of the sound quality. "It couldn't be any better," he said.

Mr. Plant wears a headset so his hands are free to use the computer as he manages portfolios and offers investment advice at the company he founded, Mark 1 Asset Management, in Oklahoma City.

For mobile phones, Plantronics will offer an updated version of the Voyager Pro UC headset, available Jan. 26 ($199.95), that lets users switch between calls received on the PC and those on a mobile phone. When the headset is stowed in a briefcase at the airport, the system is smart enough to know, and to route the signal to the phone, said Ms. Auby at Plantronics.

If headset sales soar, it will be in part because of PC software, Mr. Hafner of Gartner said. For example, people can easily use their computer to set up conference calls simply by dragging and dropping the names of colleagues across a screen.

"The key component driving headset activity is software that makes a PC more effective and functional than a desk phone," he said. "That's why business communications are converging on PCs and mobile smartphones."

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