Vonage became the first VoIP company to announce relationships with Linksys and Netgear for phone adapters and integrated routers that are VoIP enabled out of the box, according to the flurry of press releases and the account in the New York Times.
While details are largely about where they will be sold, this marks the first step away from component systems and towards integrated equipment.
While Vonage is first, I fully expect the other major players to announce relationships in the near future with these two companies as well as with D-Link and possibly SMC.
While the routers and phone adapters will be out first, the big jump and uptake will be when the WiFi boxes come out. WiFi already is one of the fastest growing technologies in the home, so the combination of a VoIP enabled WiFi router and a wireless phone could be a killer combination, further spurring adoption. For now, the Phone adapter will do the same thing as the Cisco ATA.