According to a new Infonetics study, worldwide PBX (News - Alert) sales have slowed in Q2 2012 because many businesses, especially in Europe, are averse to spending money on new telephony equipment in a slumping economy.

In North America and Latin America, however, PBX sales are more robust. In North America, Q2 2012 PBX sales grew 6.4 percent over Q2 2011 levels.

“Sales of PBX systems in North America are up 5 percent from the previous quarter and up 6.4 percent from the year-ago 2nd quarter,” said Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics (News - Alert) Research. “Latin America continues to be a small beacon of light as economies in the region experience growth and new business creation.”

Some enterprise telephony market segments showed significant growth over last year’s levels. These segments include pure IP-PBXs, IP phones and unified communications (UC) applications. Also, VoIP gateway revenue jumped 14.7 percent over last year’s levels.

Overall, however, the worldwide PBX market dropped 1.4 percent from last year’s levels to an overall total of $2 billion.

"While we still expect 2012 to eke out some growth compared to 2011, we have lowered our forecast slightly due to continued weakness in Europe, where many businesses continue to push off spending in an area where existing telephony solutions still get the job done,” Myers explained.

Avaya (News - Alert) and Cisco continue to run neck-and-neck for dominance in the PBX marketplace, but other players are starting to gain market share. Vendors who experienced significant growth despite the overall slump in the market included Microsoft, ShoreTel (News - Alert), Mitel and Samsung.

“Avaya and Cisco are the dominant vendors but others had a very good 2Q12, notably ShoreTel and Mitel. Additionally, Microsoft (News - Alert) continues to make progress in the telephony space with its strength in UC through Lync,” Myers said.

Another study from InfoTrack suggests that U.S. spending on IP telephony and UC will increase 10 percent per year, fueled by hosted IP telephony, which is expected to grow by 27 percent.

Looking to grow your channel opportunities? Then be sure to attend Channel Vision Expo (CVx), collocated with ITEXPO West 2012 taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. Stay in touch with everything happening at Channel Vision Expo. Follow us on Twitter.