At the moment the NetLink SP software is only for devices running Windows Mobile 5.0 (Pocket PC or Smartphone versions) and Pocket PC itself, but Ben Guderian, VP of marketing at Boulder, Colorado SpectraLink said there is no reason why it could not be ported to other OSes such as Symbian, Palm OS, the BlackBerry platform (a somewhat proprietary Java RTE) or indeed a mobile Linux flavor.

In essence, NetLink SP is merely a thin client software version of the company’s regular NetLink WiFi hardphones, in that it works in the same way, routing calls back to the NetLink Telephony Gateway, which in turn has a digital station interface into regular circuit-switched PBXs.

We had to develop this when we launched our hardphones a few years ago, because there weren’t many IP PBXs around in those days, Guderian explained.

The importance of the SpectraLink development is that many of its large enterprise customers don’t want to retire their TDM PBXs any time soon, but nonetheless want to enable VoWiFi on premises.

Indeed, Guderian said, NetLink SP was developed for one big customer in particular, a major retailer, for exactly these reasons, and the handsets on which the softphone is deployed there are high-end Symbol devices (the MC50 and the MC70), though he added that he also has the client running on a WM5 device from Taiwanese ODM manufacturer HTC.

The SpectraLink exec added that the sectors it will be targeting initially with the softphone are retail, manufacturing and healthcare, adding that we’ve received shows of interest from hospitals who want to put it onto WiFi-enabled cellphones so that doctors could use their phones with the client while on premises and use them as regular mobiles when they’re not.

Another question, of course, is whether SpectraLink will also extend the softphone to talk to IP PBXs. In other words, will it also launch a version supporting the SIP open standard, or even ones for some of the proprietary IPT clients that the big IP PBX vendors like Cisco, Avaya and Nortel produce to enable mobile phones to talk back to their PBXs?

We’ll probably give it a shot with SIP, he said. But the sweet spot for us right now is in big enterprises that aren’t ready to migrate to IP PBX.

As for pricing, Guderian said that, in the first instance, SpectraLink is engaging with major corporate customers who simply want to negotiate one big number to support all their handsets. Of course, these big customers will already be running the Telephony Gateway to enable SpectraLink hardphones for VoWiFi calling.

However, as the company develops the product marketing further, Guderian expected to see it come up with a single-user license price. At that point, however, the company will have to think how it wants to offer the Gateway product, possibly bundling, say, a Gateway with 50 licenses, for instance.