Enterprise IP telephony market doubles: IDC

The enterprise IP telephony market grew 98 percent in 2004, with most vendors experiencing double digit growth, according to industry analyst IDC.

IP phone sales grew 176 percent with over 200,000 units shipped during the period. Although there were no killer apps in 2004 the evolution to VoIP was well underway, the company said in a statement.

“Companies have already accepted the technology,” said Susana Vidal, telecommunications analyst at IDC. “Everybody knows they are going to [VoIP], it’s just a matter of when.”

Cisco continued to dominate with 37 percent market share, although Avaya closed the gap during 2004, finishing the year with 22 percent.

NEC made a strong entrance to the market in Q4 when it started shipments for its Victorian Government contract.

Vidal told iTNews that the entrance of traditional vendors such as NEC into the IP telephony market demonstrated that the technology was reaching the majority.

Although enterprise uptake had been positive Vidal said that the growth in the consumer market has been slow, due to the relatively low level of broadband penetration in Australia.

Broadband uptake has been increasing, however, and VoIP may be the killer application for broadband once issues such as emergency numbers and quality of service have been resolved, she said.

The strong growth of IP telephony was expected to continue through 2005 as carriers start to push their offerings and mainstream companies respond to demand for IP-based products.

"In 2005 we will see more strategic partnerships between equipment vendors, service providers/ISPs and systems integrators, some partnerships will also be broken as all players are trying to take a share of this buoyant market," Vidal said.