Until recently, audio conference speakerphones were almost always designed to connect to an analog POTS telephone line or -- in a business with a commercial telephone system or PBX -- to an analog port on the PBX.
With the explosion of IP telephony (carrying all sorts of communications traffic over the internet) it was high time for a conferencing speakerphone that connected directly to a PC, so that we can take advantage of the speakerphone's full duplex clarity for IP-based calls.