 |
A quarter of business telephony lines shipped in EMEA in 2007
were IP
- IP lines forecast to account for nearly 70% of total shipments
by 2012
Reading, UK - Monday, 14 April 2008
For immediate release
Annual highlights
- Total EMEA enterprise telephony line shipments hit 24
million in 2007, up 7% on 2006
- Call control systems represented €3.5 billion of the total
€9 billion unified communications market
- IP lines reached a new high, accounting for more than 25% of
all lines shipped
- Nearly 70% of the IP lines shipped were for medium to large
sized businesses
- EMEA accounted for 43% of global line shipments
- Shipments forecast to peak at just under 26 million lines in
2010, before investment starts to decline
Highlights from the Canalys unified communications research
New market research and forecasts from Canalys show that
increasing investment by EMEA businesses in voice and data
convergence has resulted in IP lines accounting for more than a
quarter of all enterprise telephony lines shipped in 2007. Canalys
forecasts that this will rise to nearly 70% by 2012. Overall, EMEA
enterprise telephony line shipments on systems providing call
control PBX functionality increased by 7% in 2007, to reach 24
million. This generated end-user market value of €3.5 billion,
constituting a major part of the €9 billion unified communications
market in EMEA, which also includes end-user devices, conferencing,
contact centres and messaging. Canalys research indicates that EMEA
remains the largest region for enterprise telephony systems, making
up 43% of global shipments, compared to 25% in the Asia Pacific
region, 24% in North America and 8% in Latin America. Total
worldwide shipments grew 5% from 53 million lines in 2006 to over 56
million in 2007.
The evolution to IP telephony has taken a lot longer than many
expected in EMEA, particularly in the small business sector, as
price sensitivity and lack of dedicated IT resource has restricted
adoption. Medium to large sized enterprises have so far invested the
most in converged networks, encouraged by the potential cost
savings. In addition, many channel partners serving these businesses
have made the transition to sell converged solutions, while a large
proportion of those focusing on smaller businesses have failed to
develop the new skills required.
“The small business sector is now receiving more focus from
leading vendors looking for new growth areas,” said Canalys analyst
Matthew Ball. “But they will face increasing competition from hosted
services and from vendors offering open source telephony appliances
using Asterisk and sipXecs software. Vendors introducing these types
of appliances, such as Aastra, Astimax, Digium, Nortel and Vertico
Software, aim to lower the cost and improve the simplicity of
installation and maintenance of IP deployments for small
businesses.”
The market outlook for EMEA looks healthy, although uncertain
economic conditions in 2008 are likely to influence some businesses
to delay purchasing new systems. “A large proportion of the
installed base that was purchased during the Y2K compliance drive 10
years ago will reach the end of its life over the next three years,”
Ball added. “Replacement of these systems will fuel more investment
in IP, stimulating the enterprise telephony market to increase
further until line shipments peak in 2010.”
The competitive environment in EMEA remained tough last year.
Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent retained their leadership positions,
although both lost market share. Canalys expects that the gap
between the leading two and the rest of the market will erode
further during 2008. “Avaya is building its position in Western
Europe and capitalising on the fast growing emerging markets in
Russia and the Middle East, while Nortel is gaining momentum through
its Innovative Communications Alliance with Microsoft and its push
into SMB channels,” Ball added. “Aastra could break into the top two
if its acquisition of Ericsson’s Enterprise business goes through
and Cisco will rise further up the rankings if it maintains its
recent growth rates.”
About the Unified Communication Analysis service
Through the Unified Communications Analysis service Canalys
tracks and analyses the transition of enterprise telephony from
traditional to IP-based solutions, as well as the uptake of video
telephony, messaging, conferencing and contact centre applications,
and changes in distribution trends and end-user devices. It advises
vendors on the best approaches for different markets, delivers
forecasts and analysis of market trends through regular reports and
presentations, and provides quarterly estimates of enterprise
telephony shipments by vendor, technology, size and channel. Clients
also receive direct access to Canalys analysts in order to answer
their specific enquiries about market development. More information
is available here.
About Canalys
Canalys specialises in delivering high quality market data,
analysis and advice to the world’s leading technology vendors. It is
recognised as a key provider of continuous advisory services and
confidential custom projects for marketing managers and strategists
within blue-chip IT, telecoms, navigation and consumer electronics
companies. It has unrivalled expertise in routes to market for all
kinds of high technology products and services in the consumer, SMB
and large enterprise segments, and provides worldwide market data
and trends analysis.
Receiving updates
To receive future Canalys press releases
directly, please e-mail a request with your details to press@canalys.com
or complete this form
specifying the technology market topics in which you are most
interested.
|
|
