IP telephony grabs business
Pure IP telephony soars by 93 per cent, reports analyst
Pure IP telephony (IPT) has enjoyed impressive growth over the past quarter, despite a decline in the total number of phone lines shipped, according to research from Canalys.
Figures from the analyst showed that pure IPT grew by a whopping 93 per cent, while PBX growth declined by 21.2 per cent. Hybrid IP solutions grew by 14 per cent.
However, pure IPT still accounts for only 5.9 per cent of the total market, compared with 51.6 per cent for PBX and 45.4 per cent for hybrid systems.
Among vendors, Cisco showed the biggest growth with a 94 per cent increase in its share of the IPT market.
However, its overall market share stands at only 2.9 per cent, whereas leader Nortel has a 12.3 per cent of the market, according to the report.
Sandy Fitzpatrick, a director at Canalys, said: "Cisco in particular has done a good job, although it is down a bit in shipments.
"It has done a lot in dealing with systems going down, partly by deploying lots of technicians and using aggressive escalation procedures to address problems."
Tim Stone, Cisco's voice marketing manager for EMEA, said: "We are seeing success in a sweet spot of 100 to 400 IP phones.
"We are finding that large enterprises that have trialled the technology are converting to wider deployment. The mid-market has been very good."
Ericsson had a disappointing quarter, with a growth rate of minus 30 per cent.
"Now that there is an upturn, companies must protect their own turf before attacking new markets," said Fitzpatrick.
"Ericsson doesn't seem to have a consistent strategy. Any strategy has to have a centralised management."
Frederic Boone, director of marketing EMEA at Ericsson, said: "We have not released figures to anyone, so it is hard for us to comment."