Yealink? What's in a Name?

OK.  I have to admit I was very skeptical, if not gagging on the idea of carrying a line of SIP phones named "Yealink".  I learned of them about a year ago, actually from Nick Galea (3CX CEO) originally.  If I recall - he told me that he had been contacted by their reps and were interested in having 3CX perform interop testing on their line of products (3CX since has completed testing - and 3CX Phone System software contains templates for some models now).  My skepticism was furthered by the fact that these phones have a MSRP far below other popular quality brands, and.. oh yeah, they are called "Yealink" ..  I remember briefly inquiring about distribution of these phones and learned that at that time we'd have to purchase a full container of them and go through the import process ourselves.  They were not being warehoused in the US at that time.  I thought..  no way .. end of story, forget about them, move on ...

Then about three months ago, I'm in Mike Ryan's office (Deerfield 3CX Product Manager) and he's got some new phone sitting on his desk... yup, a Yealink.  Apparently the US Yealink rep sent one of these to him for testing, and Mike's been in discussions with him about adding them to our product portfolio.  He offered to let me try it - but then I couldn't bring myself to putting a "Yealink" on my desk.  Mike at that time told me that he was very impressed with the phone - in particular how easy is was to provision, and use.  Yeah, right (I thought) and left his office.  But then on a subsequent trip into his office, I glanced over and saw that he was actually still using the forbidden "Y" phone and the screen display was actually showing the 3CX Logo.  How cool, you mean I can put a piece of black tape over the Yealink name (I joked) and have a 3CX phone on my desk!?  Ok - so I agreed to try it.  Mike reset it back to factory defaults and gave it to me.

So back I went to my office and I provisioned it.  From a manual provisioning standpoint (when you hand enter sip account details, etc.) I have to admit that is was probably the easiest sip phone I have ever set up.  Then I started to use it, and actually by the end of the week - I grew to really like this phone.  The particular model I was testing was the T28P, which retails for $188.95.  It is very easy to use, and the sound quality rivals those phones that we have in the upper end of the price spectrum (~$250-$300).  So afterward Mike Ryan took (stole) the phone back from me - but I have to admit I am sold on the value that the "phones that start with Y" bring - and actually asked him to get them into our product portfolio.  Which he did.  BTW - they are now being warehoused and supported here in the US, and are available via our Deerfield.net VoIP and IP PBX Solutions Center.  Is it OK if I just call it the "Y" phone?

Update:  With the new release of 3CX 8.0.10824 - additional support for Yealink has been added.  Specifically, improved provisioning templates, and the ability to remotely reboot the phones from the 3CX admin.