Inertia is one of the more powerful forces known to man. Most us exist in a comfort zone, and frankly don't want to change our habits and peculiarities. It's the reason 26 years after the first divestiture of the Bell System, there are still are consumers leasing their phones from their local telco.

The point was brought home in a recent conversation with Bryan Cohen, a senior sales engineer and telephony specialist with CDW, one of the larger computer retailers in the U.S. The company also does a solid side business acting as an agent for local telcos in front of the small and medium business market.

For all the hype that surrounds the great potential applications of voice over IP, and all the marketing around Vonage, Cohen said, the most likely reason a business switches to the technology boils down to the wallet.

"One of the things we see is sometimes the order for voice over IP comes down from someone that isn't even in a technology department," Cohen said. "It's as likely to come from the CEO or CFO as it is to come from the IT group."

Think about all the applications that have been developed. From presence management and attendance applications in the education market to visual elements via soft phones and click to call. They're nifty items to have, but not the key. At least not yet.

That may change, though, with mobility, according to Cohen. Despite their relatively early stage in the product lifecycle, CDW is selling plenty of Wi-Fi handsets, he said.

"What we're seeing a lot of is having just one or two handsets and keeping them at the receptionists desk," he said. "That way, if you have someone who needs to roam around a lot, like the IT manager who is out on the floor helping peopling, he just grabs one."

So while we in the industry would like to see everyone adopt every new technology out the door--and while those of us in the unwashed mass of press continue to throw fuel on the fire--the reality is that adoption curves tend to be slow. Inertia is not only powerful, it's one the greatest challenges facing the industry as it evolves.

E-mail me at vvittore@primediabusiness.com.