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Landlines Going the Way of the iPod
Landlines Going the Way of the iPod
There was a time when nearly every household and every business in the country would have had a landline phone; that is, a telephone service provided by a local phone provider, powered by simple copper lines. But according to a recent article from Forbes, only about 37 percent of American households have landlines today, with businesses similarly disinclined to use this more traditional style of telephony. Landlines, once so ubiquitous, are now all but unrecognizable to anyone under the age of 30.
Landlines aren’t the only piece of technology that once seemed immovable, now sent to the scrap heap of history. Consider the iPod. When it debuted in 2001, the iPod was heralded as a huge leap forward in personal technology. It has been credited with changing the way people collect and consume music. For a time, it was a massive, perennial bestseller, to the point where it seemed like everybody had one. But as of this year, Apple has discontinued the iPod completely.
Why have both of these older technologies become obsolete? The answer is actually pretty simple: It has everything to do with the advent of the Internet.
From iPod to Streaming
To begin with, let’s consider what made the iPod so groundbreaking… and what ultimately led to its demise.
The first-ever iPod allowed you to import up to 1,000 songs, storing them and playing them whenever and wherever you wanted. When you compare it to something like, say, the Walkman, the appeal of the iPod is pretty obvious. For its compactness and portability, it was truly a game changer.
Alas, the iPod was ultimately bested by devices like the iPhone, which provided the same music storage capabilities, plus a million other features. But the real death knell for the iPod was streaming. As the BBC notes, iPod’s 1,000-song limit looks paltry when compared to the 90 million songs you can stream on Apple.
And so, the iPod has met its end. Last updated in 2019, the iPod will remain for sale only so long as current supplies last.
Changing Communication
Just as the iPod has become obsolete, so has the old landline phone. And to a large extent, the reason is the same: There are simply better, more advantageous forms of communication available today, most of them rooted in cloud-based technology.
Think about how people communicated at the peak of the COVID-19 lockdowns. When face-to-face interaction was impossible, people flocked to video conferencing suites, cloud-based platforms that allowed for easy video communication between multiple parties, spread across the world. This was a level of connection that traditional landlines can’t match.
Crucially, it’s not just in private homes that landline phones are dying. Businesses, too, are rapidly moving away from on-premises phone systems. As businesses jettison these older systems of landline-based telephony, many of them have adopted cloud-based alternatives, such as Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS).
Indeed, while on-prem phone systems aren’t yet extinct, they are increasingly old-fashioned and unnecessary. Just consider some of the reasons why businesses increasingly look to UCaaS:
- UCaaS combines traditional telephony with other communication features, like video conferencing and text messaging, all available from the same platform.
- UCaaS can be integrated with customer relations management (CRM) software, allowing businesses to keep track of customer interactions for more personalized service.
- With UCaaS, businesses can get a monthly, subscription-based price, scaling up their features as their business grows.
- Switching to UCaaS allows businesses to ensure that data security and compliance are managed by their cloud service provider.
These are just a few of the reasons why cloud-based communication has risen in prominence, very much to the detriment of on-prem, landline-based telephony.
Stay on Top of Telecom Technology
On-prem telephony is going the way of the iPod. To ensure your business is making good use of the best available technology, speak with a qualified telecom provider soon. Reach out to TelWare at your next opportunity.
To learn more about staying current with the latest communications technology, contact us at 1.800.921.9680 or email us at info@onecloud.com. OneCloud provides UCaaS solutions for businesses of all sizes. Manage calls, voicemails, business texts, video conferencing, and more on any device, and from any location.
