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The mobile craze is still blazing for Americans. Forty-one percent of U.S. citizens owned a smartphone last year, and that number has jumped to encompassing half of all adult Americans now owning some sort of smart device, according to Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, which polled over 9,500 adults this summer. Between tablets and smartphones, this has yet to take into account today’s youth who possess smart devices, too. Further, one-third of these individuals use their mobile devices to view news stories and other sorts of media at least once a week.

In light of this, 8x8 (News - Alert), Inc., a renowned provider of innovative cloud communications and computing solutions, today revealed the newest version of its Virtual Office mobile PBX offering –Virtual Office Mobile 4.0 – at this year’s ITEXPO (News - Alert) Austin 2012. Made completely compatible with any leading smartphone and tablet used in today’s business world, 8x8, a Platinum Sponsor of ITEXPO Austin, rolled out the newest version to further simplify business conversations while enhancing productivity with better management and communications budgets.

This newest version of the company’s Virtual Office mobile PBX offering is available immediately for iOS and will be in the fourth quarter of 2012 for Android (News - Alert) devices. Even more, Virtual Office Mobile 4.0 boasts the same voice, video and PBX benefits which the company’s cloud-based Virtual Office suite already has. Combined, the two add create an enhanced, feature-rich user interface designed to take full advantage of the iPhone and iPad’s Retina display, a statement explains.

Image via 8x8

With Virtual Office Mobile 4.0, business users can enjoy the following benefits:

• Take their office extensions anywhere
• Minimize phone tag while maximizing productivity and responsiveness to customers and business partners alike
• Conduct voice and video calls over 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi (including free Wi-Fi hotspots)
• Enjoy better call quality over Wi-Fi and 3G/4G/LTE (News - Alert) (even under low-bandwidth connections)
• View incoming faxes
• See the status of co-workers
• Access PBX features including call transfer, conference bridges and directories
• And much more

“With Virtual Office Mobile 4.0, workers will now have a single voice and video softphone solution that works across all iOS devices, with no tradeoffs in call quality and user experience,” said 8x8 Chairman & CEO, Bryan Martin. “Virtual Office Mobile empowers business communications by extending the features and conveniences of office calling and collaboration to hotel rooms, airport lounges, customer sites and all of the other places where businesspeople work.”

“8x8’s Virtual Office Mobile offers our business the features and functionality to stay connected and be productive with high-quality voice across our various offices and wherever our people may be,” said Ed Arango, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Mariners General Insurance Group. “The addition of video will significantly improve our business communications, and we are looking forward to greater convenience and efficiency with the new Virtual Office Mobile 4.0.” 

Besides exhibiting at Booth #801, 8x8’s VP of Business Development, Huw Rees (News - Alert), will be delivering a keynote speech today, Wednesday, October 03, at 11:45 a.m. With more than 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Rees played a major role in the execution and development of several core 8x8 strategic initiatives.

Further, 8x8 CMO Debbie Jo Severin will be speaking later this morning from 11-11:45 a.m. during a session titled, “Grow Your Business Without Sacrificing Options,” which is being presented to help businesses navigate through the tricky yet equally critical business decisions faced when choosing the type of communications system that works best for their company.

To find out more about Huw Rees, Debbie Jo Severin and Platinum Sponsor 8x8, visit the company at ITEXPO Austin 2012. Currently in progress at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, TX, ITEXPO is the world’s largest communications and technology event of its kind. Huw Rees is serving as a keynote speaker and Debbie Jo Severin is speaking during “Grow Your Business Without Sacrificing Options.” For more information on ITEXPO, click here.