VoIP Market Unaffected by Economic Downturn

By Greg McNevin

December 18, 2008: IP telephony use is on the rise despite, or perhaps because of, the economic crisis, with research firm Infonetics announcing tat IP phone shipments were up 25 percent in Q3, 2008, and doubling since Q2.

Overall, the firm found that the IP telephony market increased 8 percent over the quareter, tipping US$2.6 (AU$3.77) billion.

Pure IP PBX and hybrid PBX equipment sales were up, while TDM PBX equipment sales slumped, with Infonetics forecasting the TDM market to dip below US$1 (AU$1.45) billion for the first time in 2008.

“The enterprise telephony market more than likely will get squeezed during the recession, particularly in 2009 because one of the prime drivers of PBX sales is the creation of new businesses and the expansion of existing businesses, which are hampered during downturns,” said Infonetics in a statement.

The research firm says that Cisco has pulled ahead of the pack and delivered its best performance yet, with the networking giant leading the overall PBX equipment market with a 19 percent revenue gain in Q3 over Q2, trumping Avaya in second and Nortel Networks in third.

“Cisco is the only vendor gaining significant market share in this market in 2008; most other vendors are holding steady or decreasing slightly,” said Infonetics.

The results are not particularly surprising, as many companies were turning to IP telephony as a means to reduce costs well before the current economic crisis, and now there is more incentive to do so as budgets shrink.

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