Panasonic the long good bye Closing it up
"Another Business Telephone Provider Ends decades of production"
This past week Panasonic informed its dealers that they will be leaving the PBX “Communications market” for Small Business Phone system market. What is the impact on the small business phone system market and the owners of Panasonic Business Phone Systems?
“In recent years Panasonic has worked hard to find a way to continue the business by making our organization and its relationships with partners as sustainable as possible. However, it has become apparent that this is not possible… given the current business environment based on the limited capability of factory resources.”
We still expect that Panasonic will make handsets for other manufacturers. It is something they do well and their telephones 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.
This past week Panasonic informed its dealers that they will be leaving the PBX “Communications market” for Small Business Phone system market. What is the impact on the small business phone system market and the owners of Panasonic Business Phone Systems?
“In recent years Panasonic has worked hard to find a way to continue the business by making our organization and its relationships with partners as sustainable as possible. However, it has become apparent that this is not possible… given the current business environment based on the limited capability of factory resources.”
We still expect that Panasonic will make handsets for other manufacturers.
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 small business and most importantly not working aggressively to strengthen their Panasonic Installers network. You can not sell equipment if you do not have enough trained installers to program it.
Since the Mid 90s Panasonic Telephone systems have offered a wide range of office communication systems from conventional analogue compatible models to today’s full IP phone systems. Panasonic seemed to always create amazing looking handsets with mostly a user friendly focus. Many say they love Panasonic Desk Phones. Panasonic Desk phones and Cordless telephones were some of the premier in the industry.
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.
We do not see Panasonic Announces as shocking and we certainly do not think they will be the ONLY telephone System producer to depart this market. In the last ten years we have seen many telephone 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: Small Business phone Systems, Business phone Systems, Alternative to Cloud Phone Systems, 4 Line Phone Systems. Panasonic Desk phones
