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March 11, 2014

Infonetics Report Points to Substantial Unified Communications Growth


Telecom market research firm Infonetics recently published a report that points to dramatic growth in the unified communications (UC) industry. The group's end-of-year Enterprise Unified Communications and Voice Equipment report states worldwide revenue for companies in the industry grew 31 percent last year and analysts have explored the ramifications such growth will have on the enterprise telephony market.

Analysts predict an annual growth rate of 7 percent for UC through 2018, but that continued development of WebRTC may disrupt that growth. Individual and corporate experimentation with WebRTC could lead to that technology usurping dedicated videoconferencing providers by allowing people to achieve similar results at home or in the office.

In 2011, Google released the open-source WebRTC project, which allows Web browsers to natively handle audio/video capture, multi-way audio/video calling and peer-to-peer connections -- capabilities dedicated providers now take care of with UC products. Individuals can easily recreate what they get from such providers, however, directly from their own browsers. The technology is still under heavy development and consideration from the W3C, but it is gaining momentum. And if that momentum holds then the WebRTC standard may soon replace the need for any sort of dedicated audio/video host.

Infonetics expects the number of UC vendors to shrink in the coming year because, presently, a glut of providers overwhelms the demand for services. It cites Mitel's recent merger with Astra, the sale of Alcatel-Lucent to Chinese firm Huaxin, and Unify's (previously known as Siemens) management restructuring as evidence for this claim. Infonetics also points to Cisco, which leads the private branch exchange market with 26 percent revenue share, just above Avaya at 21 percent, and says Microsoft leads the UC market with 43 percent.

Several large companies appear to rule, and smaller or dwindling entities are merging in order to remain in competition with major players. Small or large, however, they must all now worry about WebRTC as a competitor and try to step into that technology space before it begins to displace any call for a corporate presence.

The Infonetics report can be found here.



Edited by Cassandra Tucker

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