Telecom Lead America: Cisco leads unified communications (UC) among enterprises, followed by Microsoft and IBM.
Infonetics Research said its unified communications survey reveals an important shift taking place as enterprises increasingly use mobile devices to access UC applications.
“Survey respondents indicate that smartphones and tablets will be the two most widely used devices for UC in 2013, passing traditional computers and deskphones,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research.
The top drivers for deploying UC are improving employee response time, mobility, flexibility, and productivity.
In a shift from previous years’ Infonetics surveys, complexity displaced cost as the leading barrier affecting UC deployment.
When choosing a UC solution, 71 percent of survey respondents view mobile device integration as very important.
Meanwhile, the SIP trunking and hosted UC segments were marked by strong growth and dynamic supplier landscapes in the first half of 2012.
Beyond traditional operators and service providers, a number of PBX/UC vendors, enterprise agents, system integrators, and resellers are expanding into hosted UC offerings.
Infonetics predicts a cumulative $377 billion will be spent on business and residential/SOHO VoIP services over the 5 years from 2012 to 2016, driven primarily by SIP trunking and hosted VoIP/UC services.
NTT, leader of residential VoIP market, topped 14 million subscribers in 2Q12.
Roughly 15 percent–20 percent of all new IP PBX lines sold are part of a managed service or outsourced contract, making managed IP PBX the largest segment of business VoIP services.
SIP trunking revenue grew 23 percent in the first half of 2012 compared to the second half of 2011, led by strong activity in North America.
