Does Microsoft Lync Have Voice Shipment Lead?
January 30, 2014
By TMCnet Special Guest
Justin DiSandro
Microsoft (News - Alert) recently made the claim that Lync leads the market in voice shipments. It’s a simple statement, but it carries a lot of weight. So just how much truth is behind Microsoft’s announcement?
It all began when BJ Haberkorn, director of Lync product marketing, posted a blog in which he touted several impressive statistics about Lync growth, particularly in Enterprise Voice deployments, the highlight of which was this statement:
"Microsoft is now shipping more enterprise voice lines than any other technology company in the world,” said Mr. Haberkorn.
Obviously, the reality of Microsoft’s assertion should be left to concrete numbers. Nojitter.com took an opportunity to uncover the truth. Jeremy Duke, CEO of market research firm Synergy (News - Alert) Research, examined Microsoft’s claim in relation to their growth in recent months. He added that Microsoft is expanding above and beyond their competitors. In enterprise voice revenues, they are growing close to 60% on an annual basis.
The numbers don’t lie. Lync is growing swiftly and taking a big chunk out of competitor’s business. Duke suggests that if Microsoft continues to grow as they are trending, it is very likely that they will surpass their competition in collaboration revenues very soon.
NoJitter.com then reached out to Diane Myers, analyst at Infonetics Research (News - Alert). Since Microsoft bundles voice with the server license, Myers suggests that many businesses may be getting voice, but not enabling or using it.
Ultimately, the big picture is that Microsoft is making gains in enterprise voice and is seeing tremendous success with Lync in general. Jeremy Duke notes that the incumbents are seeing their voice revenue flatten out, while Microsoft, which is growing from zero, can boast strong growth numbers for voice.
Edited by Blaise McNamee