Business VoIP and IMS Equipment Market to Grow in 2012: Infonetics Research

The past few years have seen a great rise in the demand for business VoIP as it transforms the way small businesses communicate by helping keep employees and customers connected anytime and anywhere.  

Recently, Infonetics Research, an international market research and consulting firm presented the findings of its fourth quarter 2011 Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers vendor market share and forecast report.

In a press release, Diane Myers, directing analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research, said, "The (business) VoIP and IMS equipment market surged in the final quarter of 2011, as it often does at the end of the year, but the more important measure is the year-over-year comparison, and from that vantage point the market is down 2 percent in 2011 from 2010 as legacy trunk media gateway and softswitch sales drag on the overall market."

The report indicates that global sales of telecom service provider voice over IP (VoIP) and IP Multimedia Subsystem equipment jumped 15.8 percent in 4Q11 over 3Q11, to $690 million. The overall carrier business VoIP and IMS market for the full year decreased 2.1 percent in 2011 over 2010, to $2.6 billion.

Infonetics also forecasts the global business VoIP and IMS equipment market will reverse course and grow to $3.8 billion by 2016, led by IMS sales.

Additionally, the number of global IMS-based subscribers will grow from 177 million in 2011 to 610 million in 2016. Vendors posting notable growth in the VoIP and IMS market in 2011 include Huawei, GENBAND, Alcatel-Lucent, and Acme Packet.

Huawei concluded 2011 on top of the overall business VoIP and IMS market, just ahead of GENBAND. North America and EMEA had the strongest fourth quarter, posting VoIP and IMS sales growth of more than 20 percent each.