Video market set to top $3bn this year
A brace of analysts predict market growth as Avaya swoops on video specialist Radvision in $230m deal
The videoconferencing market has been given a double shot in the arm with analysts predicting hefty market growth this year and Avaya snapping up video specialist Radvision for $230m (£147m).
Infonetics Research released numbers this week claiming that the global video and telepresence market grew 15 per cent sequentially in Q4 to $882m. Across the whole of 2011, the analyst pegged year-on-year growth at 34 per cent, with total revenue stretching to $2.99bn.
Cisco remains a dominant market leader and the network giant saw its video revenue jump by a quarter during Q4. Its market share also rose three points to 52.5 per cent during 2011's last three months.
Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics, said: "Sales of telepresence and videoconferencing equipment surged in the past two years, with growth accelerating in 2011 as video took off on enterprise IP PBX systems."
IDC also gave the video space the thumbs-up this week, although the analyst calculates the total market worth as somewhat less than Infonetics. According to an IDC report this week, the enterprise video market was worth $2.7bn last year, a 20.6 per cent increase on 2010.
The market watcher believes global spending will spike 18.7 per cent to $3.2bn this year. Meanwhile Infonetics forecasts a total of $22bn will be spent on video kit and services between this year and 2016.
The IDC report suggests lower-end, desktop video was driving growth last year. Growth in spending on immersive telepresence slowed by 22 per cent in 2011, with the total market worth a little more than $315m.
Rich Costello, senior research analyst for enterprise communications infrastructure at IDC, said: "Growth in worldwide enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence in 2011 was spurred on by well-defined video use cases across a variety of vertical market business segments, as well as the continuing decrease of cultural barriers to video acceptance within organisations."
Video was given a further endorsement today with UC vendor Avaya announcing it has agreed a buyout of Radvision for about $230m. The Israeli video outfit's technology will integrate with the vendor's Aura technology platform.
Avaya chief executive Kevin Kennedy said: "With this acquisition we will seek to extend videoconferencing to any device, any time, anywhere, making it as easy as a phone call, seizing the opportunity to deliver a fully integrated solution and architecture that we believe sets us apart from the competition."