IP telephony lifts voice market

14.8 per cent growth in IP phones boosts global telephony market in Q1, according to Synergy Research

Growth in revenues from IP telephony helped the global enterprise voice market to a modest four per cent year-on-year growth during 2008's first quarter, research has revealed.

Market research firm Synergy Research's Q1 Enterprise Voice Market Share report indicates that Q1's biggest growth market was IP phones, which grew 14.8 per cent on Q1 2007, while enterprise IP telephony as a whole grew 11.7 per cent. Western Europe's leading vendor was Alcatel-Lucent, although its revenues increased less than half a per cent on the same period last year.

Siemens was in second after displaying a 10.1 per cent growth on last year's revenues, while Cisco swelled revenues by 30.2 per cent and was in third. Avaya was in fourth with a year-on-year revenue growth of 12.8 per cent and Aastra completed the top five, despite a 9.9 per cent decline in revenues from last year's first quarter.

Synergy's chief executive Jeremy Duke said: "Enterprise IP telephony and IP phone equipment remain the key growth drivers for the overall enterprise voice market. This continues to translate into dollars for those vendors who are able to provide solid IP migration for legacy TDM environments, especially in the SME market where IP penetration remains minimal."