Growth in the IP telephony market for the first quarter of 2011 is a significant factor in year-on-year growth in the business phones systems market as a whole, according to a new report by Infonetics Research.
The Infonetics report shows that the market for IP (internet protocol) telephony, worldwide, grew by almost one per cent in comparison with the last quarter for 2010. According to the report, the strong performance by IP telephony has contributed towards an eight and a half per cent year-on-year growth in the worldwide market for business phone systems as a whole.
Comments by the Directing Analyst at Infonetics, Diane Myers, that ‘the global PBX (private branch exchange) market is typically down in the first quarter following a strong fourth quarter’ emphasises the crucial significance of the positive quarter-on-quarter growth shown by IP telephony.
According to the report, total sales income worldwide from the global business phone systems market in the first quarter of 2011 stood at £1.5 billion. This includes traditional exchanges based on public telephone line connections, but also reflects the adoption of newer internet-based technologies such as IP telephony; business VoIP (voice over internet protocol); and equipment designed to adapt conventional exchanges, via session initiation protocol (SIP) trunking, to make and receive calls over business VoIP channels.
The strongest quarterly showing worldwide was seen in the Asia Pacific region, with a quarter-on-quarter growth of seven per cent.
The growth trend for IP telephony cited in the Infonetics report reflects similar positive findings for IP telephony and business VoIP growth in other reports. Strong take-up of internet-based telephony technologies – whether entirely in-house, or off-site, via the services of either a business VoIP provider or a VoIP reseller – has often been based on a demonstrable lowering of call costs and increased management flexibility over business phone systems.
