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Obi200 and 202 discontinued?

Started by RobertNYC, December 02, 2019, 07:21:10 AM

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RobertNYC

Does anyone know if Poly has discontinued manufacture of the Obi 200 and 202, or if Poly has or will end support for Google Voice? On their website, when searching for VoIP adapters, the only devices that appear are the Obi 300, 302, and 312. None of these have the Google Voice logo affixed to them. I bought the Poly branded Obi 202 back in early October, and my setup was without problem and, so far, my service remains fine. However, I have to wonder if this will change. There is no sign of the Poly branded Obi202 available online; Amazon shows the older Obi branded 202 for sale, but perhaps this is simply what remains in stock. Amazon still has the Poly branded 200 for sale, but perhaps they're also just selling what remains in stock. On B & H Photo, both devices are marked as "discontinued." Assuming for argument's sake they're discontinuing these devices AND support for Google Voice, can we assume our existing devices will continue to work with Google Voice?

LTN1

Since Polycom owns OBi devices and the ObiTalk web sites, how did you miss their main side selling Google Voice compatible OBis? See https://www.obitalk.com/info/products

As for the newer Polycom (OBi) devices that work with GV, in all of your web searching, you couldn't find these at Newegg? See https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?d=obi

Sure, Polycom could discontinue ANY of their products without notice--that's their prerogative as a private business--however, your assumptions are baseless. It's what starts a type of fake news. It is like looking at the sky and seeing one small cloud and assuming and working yourself up to the possibility of a 100-year storm coming from that single cloud. 

RobertNYC

I wasn't making assumptions, but was asking a question based on the curious absence of the OBI 200 and 202 devices on their website. The Obi page showing the devices sends viewers to Amazon, where I had already mentioned seeing the Poly branded 200 for sale, as well as the Obi branded 202. The NewEgg site shows the Poly branded 202 as "out of stock." Again, only the Poly branded 200 and the Obi branded 202 are available. I raised the question: could these devices simply be what remain in stock? Perhaps I am expressing unwarranted concern, but it remains curious that on Poly's own site, when clicking on their Products link to VoIP adapters, they display the 300, 302, and 312, but not the 200 and 202. If they want to support and continue these products, it is logical to assume they would be listed alongside their other VoIP adapters. I would say my question, warranted or not, remains unanswered.

LTN1

Quote from: RobertNYC on December 02, 2019, 08:43:16 AM
I wasn't making assumptions, but was asking a question based on the curious absence of the OBI 200 and 202 devices on their website. The Obi page showing the devices sends viewers to Amazon, where I had already mentioned seeing the Poly branded 200 for sale, as well as the Obi branded 202. The NewEgg site shows the Poly branded 202 as "out of stock." Again, only the Poly branded 200 and the Obi branded 202 are available. I raised the question: could these devices simply be what remain in stock? Perhaps I am expressing unwarranted concern, but it remains curious that on Poly's own site, when clicking on their Products link to VoIP adapters, they display the 300, 302, and 312, but not the 200 and 202. If they want to support and continue these products, it is logical to assume they would be listed alongside their other VoIP adapters. I would say my question, warranted or not, remains unanswered.

Polycom branded 202 out of stock? Not in the last 1 hour since I checked: https://www.newegg.com/polycom-2200-49522-001-accessories/p/N82E16833617016?Description=obi&cm_re=obi-_-9SIA47JAG56129-_-Product

And to feed your paranoia, yes, I "feel" that Polycom will discontinue and render your recently purchased GV device inoperable in the coming year. Happy now?

To everyone else, nothing to see here.

SteveInWA

Hunh?

Absolutely, positively, without any doubt whatsoever,

NO.  Those devices are current products which have not been discontinued.

bobpaul

Currently the official listing for the Obi202 on Amazon (ie, the one which is linked from ObiHai's product page) shows only third party sellers: one at $175, one at $280. Bestbuy and NewEgg are both out of stock. It does seem like there is a shortage right now. Maybe with everyone working from home sales due to covid went way up? I need to get one for a client soon and was expecting to pay closer to $80.

LTN1

Quote from: bobpaul on June 10, 2020, 10:14:28 AM
Currently the official listing for the Obi202 on Amazon (ie, the one which is linked from ObiHai's product page) shows only third party sellers: one at $175, one at $280. Bestbuy and NewEgg are both out of stock. It does seem like there is a shortage right now. Maybe with everyone working from home sales due to covid went way up? I need to get one for a client soon and was expecting to pay closer to $80.

Newegg is currently selling the OBi202 for $95 (within the past 5 minutes of checking): https://www.newegg.com/polycom-2200-49522-001-accessories/p/N82E16833617016?Description=obi&cm_re=obi-_-9SIA47JAG56129-_-Product

SteveInWA

Quote from: bobpaul on June 10, 2020, 10:14:28 AM
Currently the official listing for the Obi202 on Amazon (ie, the one which is linked from ObiHai's product page) shows only third party sellers: one at $175, one at $280. Bestbuy and NewEgg are both out of stock. It does seem like there is a shortage right now. Maybe with everyone working from home sales due to covid went way up? I need to get one for a client soon and was expecting to pay closer to $80.

No, the products are still in production; they just rebranded them as Poly, not Obihai, and changed the product numbers to use Poly's numbering system. 

So, you should be able to find them at Newegg and perhaps other authorized sellers.  I dunno why Poly is having such a hard time working with Amazon.

chilirock

Ok, well maybe they are not "discontinued", but they are clearly not supported by Polycom. They continue to sell the product, but there have been no firmware updates in more than a year to address on-going issues. There have been a number of people in these forums indicating that they have reached out to Polycom for support, and received no response after multiple attempts.

It would almost be better to say the products were discontinued and leave the consumer with no expectation of support, than to keep the product "active" and ignore existing issues and ignore the existing customer base. 

drgeoff

Half of me hopes that the core engineers responsible for the original Sipura ATAs (later reboxed and rebranded as Linksys) who left and started Obihai to produce even better units are even now in a new startup and working on still better units but needing to wait for some restriction on their activities to expire.

But the other half of me often thinks that the current and future market for ATAs is too small to recoup the development costs of new ATAs.  The future of VoIP is VoIP phones, not ATAs.

SteveInWA

Quote from: drgeoff on June 11, 2020, 03:25:29 PM
... are even now in a new startup and working on still better units but needing to wait for some restriction on their activities to expire.

That's not gonna happen.  There is very little revenue in it.  The company would fold, because:

Quote
But the other half of me often thinks that the current and future market for ATAs is too small to recoup the development costs of new ATAs.  The future of VoIP is VoIP phones, not ATAs.

The consumer VoIP market in the US is dominated by the cable/fiber service providers, which use integrated modems/routers/ATAs ("MTUs" or "Gateways").  The business VoIP market is growing and dominated by IP phones.  The pure-play service providers like Vonage and Phonepower, who still use stand-alone ATAs, are a dying segment.

I believe that, if it wasn't for people hearing "get free phone service from Google - just buy this box", then there would be virtually no consumer DIY market for ATAs.

Moonwalker

I just picked up a brand new Polycom 202 for 77.99 including shipping from Ebay. Shop around a bit. They are  still out there, still being made, and not all are that expensive. GOOGLE IT.

As far as support, my experience has been that the grunts that answer the phones or whatever never know as much as I can figure out on my own with just a little poking around. I was once told there is no support for distinctive rings. Bull! I have it working on my service. Do some poking around. These boxes are stupid easy to set up without any direct support at all.