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There are many different kinds of ▲VoIP products on the market. This page will try to provide an overview of some of the various kinds of products, with a particular emphasis on consumer and enterprise devices.
▲Gateways are devices that allow one to interconnect VoIP networks with the PSTN. Those are quite commonly deployed in carrier networks, as well as enterprise networks. These devices are what enable us to build a bridge between the old PSTN network that is slowly, but surely, disappearing with the new VoIP networks that are now being deployed around the world.
Similar to gateway devices, there is a smaller class of devices called Analog Terminal Adapters (or ▲ATAs). These devices allow one to connect a regular old POTS phone (like the ones used for the past 100 years) to a VoIP network. Essentially, they are "single line" gateway devices that communicate using some kind of VoIP protocol on one side, but offer a phone jack on the other. They are commonly used by service providers like Vonage in order to allow people to get the benefits of VoIP calls without having to purchase new phones and deploy them throughout the house. In fact, it is possible with most ATAs to plug them into the phone jack in one's home and then use any phone in the house that is also connected to the internal phone wiring. (Do be careful to disconnect your home from the telephone company, else the ATA and the phone company will send power through the same wiring. That would be bad.)
A third class of VoIP devices is called ▲USB Phones. USB phones and USB headsets are probably the most interesting class of devices, because they allow one to use a computer to make phone calls. These devices have absolutely no connection to the PSTN or old telephones of yesterday. If you are a user of Skype or other kind of VoIP service enabled strictly through your computer, you really need to buy a USB phone or headset to get the most out of the service. For more information, read the article "What are USB phones?".