Skype for Business Certified IP Phones with Microsoft Teams

Rob Geach I understand your frustrations. We have dozens of customers that are coming from the Lync\Skype for Business world and moving into Microsoft Teams, we provide guidance, roadmaps and the like specific to their requirements, taking into account existing devices they might have not just across their user base but in meeting spaces as well. The article I wrote that explains where we came from and where we are going was written to address precisely the misconceived notions you've stated above. I would also say the points you raised after reading my post make little to no sense: This article wasn't written from the perspective of Microsoft, nor was it written from the perspective of a Microsoft partner (which my company is) that is being "squeezed" (your words, not mine) into relaying their message. The article was written by me: an industry UC professional that has the knowledge and experience to provide a balanced perspective on this topic. You've chosen to introduce your own bias when reading it.

You also seem to assume that Microsoft is the one selling the phones here. They're not. I would be very surprised if Microsoft cares one way or the other what specific end user device you use, as long as it's supported, and that the user experience is consistent.

Nothing was "done because they [Microsoft] just really don't care". I'm totally over hearing this narrative. A new platform was released: Microsoft Teams. It's taken off, one reason being because it left all the baggage of LCS\OCS\Lync\SfB behind and built fresh on a new hyper-scale platform that made sense in this cloud first modern world. It's built on an entirely new protocol, and no, you can't just get a SIP device and "make it work". To your original point, Teams works on a Yealink C960 because the device already happened to run Android, which aligned with Microsoft's strategy for Teams devices.

Is there some pain moving from one to the other? Yes. I know, because I work with dozens of organisations that need assistance to get there. You can keep complaining, making broad assumptions that this is some kind of corporate money grab, or you can get on with it and move forward.