The global IP phone market is roughly $2 billion -$3 billion yearly, where many enterprise users still prefer a hardware-based desktop phone instead of a tablet acting as a desktop IP phone. The Microsoft (News - Alert) Surface tablet has been speculated as a game-changer in the IP phone market, as it is one device that is capable of running desktop enterprise apps, e-mail, browsing and is multimedia-ready with support for VoIP and video conferencing. However, the IP phone market showed growth and expanded market share in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

According a report by International Data Corporation (IDC (News - Alert)), “EMEA IP PBX and IP Phone 2011 Vendor Shares,” the IP PBX and IP phone markets in Central and Eastern Europe grew 35.5 percent year-on-year, led by strong growth in Russia, while the Western European market as a whole grew only 7.3 percent. The markets in the EMEA region reached $3.5 billion in 2011.

Among the five leading vendors, Cisco and Siemens (News - Alert) expanded their market share in the EMEA region on year-on-year basis, while the three other vendors reported flat growth or recorded slight decline in results.

Though there were differences between regions and vendors in EMEA region, technology-wise the industry showed more convergence, the report added.

In order to differentiate themselves; vendors offer advanced product features such as virtualization, support for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies, videoconferencing capabilities, integrated end-user experience across platforms and devices and the capability to deliver functionalities from hosted or public cloud solutions.

VoIP is often less expensive than traditional telephone systems, especially for long distance calls. VoIP services are a great alternative for businesses that cannot afford to have a dedicated in-house IT staff. With Hosted PBX (News - Alert) VoIP business solutions, most of the telecom equipment is located at the VoIP provider’s office; the only telecom equipment located at your offices is the VoIP phone sets.

Yealink (News - Alert), a provider of VoIP phone and IP communications solutions, offers a variety of IP phones and products for the Internet and cloud. Its USB VoIP phone comes in four different models, with features such as dialing Skype by keypads, voice quality and LCD displays.

IDC senior analyst and the report author Michael Vorisek said the recent trends emphasize the fundamental transformation of the IP PBX business, which has been under way for some time now.

"An increasing number of IP PBXs are being installed as part of unified communications and collaboration [UC&C] deployments," Vorisek said. "In fact, none of the major players in this market would define themselves as IP PBX vendors any longer; instead, they would all position their products in the UC&C space."

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