New devices
Except the app doesn't seem to let you load just the My Ooma contacts. Nor do all the HD handsets let you merge favorites (like almost all other cordless phones do). Just a real PITA to get favorites or even just My Ooma contacts all on each phone. Seems it would be so easy to do with software. That was the best thing with my old Panasonic phones.
Re: New devices
The Ooma app doesn't own the cell phone contact lists, so it doesn't manage them. However, cell phone providers usually offer some native apps to import and export contacts, store them in a cloud, or whatever. Exporting contacts from 'My Ooma', and importing them into a cell phone should be easy to do.
A Panasonic phone may have multiple handsets, but it's still only one phone; it can't share Favorites with other phones, either. The HD3 Favorites can store at most 10 numbers, which users can add from their (syncable) Phonebook, Call Logs, or Redial list. How much of a pain could it be to set them up individually?
The 'My Ooma' contacts, on the other hand, can store up to 1,000 entries. Did the old Panasonic phones offer a way to import them into their phonebooks? If not, then manually adding contacts to just one handset could take a while; they don't even have a real keyboard.
A Panasonic phone may have multiple handsets, but it's still only one phone; it can't share Favorites with other phones, either. The HD3 Favorites can store at most 10 numbers, which users can add from their (syncable) Phonebook, Call Logs, or Redial list. How much of a pain could it be to set them up individually?
The 'My Ooma' contacts, on the other hand, can store up to 1,000 entries. Did the old Panasonic phones offer a way to import them into their phonebooks? If not, then manually adding contacts to just one handset could take a while; they don't even have a real keyboard.