Panasonic Announces going out of business
Major Announcement Panasonic going out of business!
Panasonic on December 2nd Panasonic informed its dealers that they will be leaving the PBX small business phone system market. What is the impact on the small business phone system market and the owners of Panasonic Business Phone Systems? The biggest impact is the dealers who only offered this brand, and the customers who will no longer have access to firmware updates
We still expect that Panasonic will make handsets for other manufacturers. It is something they do well and their phones tend to be popular and as well as stylish. However, like many, Panasonic made many miss steps in the last few years that led to their downfall.
They indicated that Covid-19 was the biggest cause of their demise but we feel that there were many other issues that also lead to this departure in the industry. They were extremely late adopting cloud options for their customer base and most importantly not working aggressively to strengthen their Panasonic Installers.
Since the very early 1990s Panasonic Office Communication systems offer a wide range of office communication systems from conventional analogue compatible models to today’s digital full IP telephone systems. Panasonic seemed to always create amazing looking handsets with mostly friendly focus. Many say they love Panasonic Desk Phones.
Panasonic lost their foothold by not seeing the trends in the industry and trying to position their great looking phones accordingly. We recently saw an effort to do this by teaming up with Comcast Business Phones using Panasonic handsets. We do believe you can get Panasonic Handsets of course either refurbished Panasonic Handsets or new ones if they still continue to make them.
Panasonic Announces is going out of business but will they be the only one? We also feel that Panasonic won’t be the only PBX Phone producer to announce the departure from the industry. We see issues with companies like Vertical, ESI and others who just do not have the Installers to maintain a growing base of Telephone System Installs. In the last ten years we have seen many phone system manufacturers be absorbed or completely go out of business. We have seen companies like Comdial, Vodavi, Nortel, ShorTel, and Toshiba Phones to all exit the small business phone system market. Some have been replaced with companies like Xblue Phone System for small businesses to help small businesses with cheap small business phone systems.
You may ask why would anyone want a traditional wall mounted phone system in today’s modern phone system world? The reason is that with the Cloud Phone System, you have a recurring bill that never goes away which can be great for lower upfront costs in these tight economic times. Yet, over the long term you will play more. However, typically what you get is way more robust and kept up to date virtually instantly. Cloud phone systems allow you to scale or descale which is critical during these turbulent times. Yet, there is absolutely something to be said for having the physical box on the wall that is an asset to your business and it paid for and all you pay is for the analog lines.
So who will be the winner of the Panasonic customer base? It certainly wont be the current owners of these phone systems but we expect that NEC, and Avaya will be the largest beneficiaries of the loss of Panasonic. Followed by companies Like VoiceOne a Hybrid Cloud system with onsite components as well. We may see 8×8, and Nextiva pick up some of the customers as well. Generally these customers want something onsite and Voiceone, NEC, and Avaya standout in that regard.
The biggest miss steps for Panasonic was its failure to launch a popular cloud option for the Small Business Phone System Market. They had in recent years put a cloud option in place being ran from Ireland. The customer based and the installer base just did not accept it easily.
~ Joshua Begual
Telephone Equipment Industry Trends Expert
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This news Story is related to: Panasonic Going Out of Business, Panasonic Announces the End of the Small Business Phone System, Panasonic Small Business Has Lost its foothold.
