It does not take an award for most people to recognize the name Cisco. It has been a giant in networking equipment development for some time. Nevertheless, Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) recently announced that it has recognized Cisco with the 2015 Global Frost & Sullivan Market Leadership Award.
Cisco earned the award following Frost & Sullivan's study of the enterprise IP communications endpoints market with its strong showing as a provider of IP desktop phones, desktop communications clients, and mobile voice and unified communications clients. In all those fields, Cisco (News - Alert) holds a market share of greater than 30 percent. Frost & Sullivan ICT Industry Manager Alaa Saayed confirmed those numbers and included a brief analysis of Cisco's history in a comment for the award announcement.
“Cisco's implementation excellence in the IP endpoint space is evident in its ownership of the largest installed base of IP desktop phones and UC clients in the market,” Saayed said. “Since the first shipment of Cisco's IP phones more than 15 years ago, the company has expanded its IP endpoints installed base from 1 million in 2002 to 12 million in 2007, 30 million in 2013, 50 million in 2012, and 70 million in 2014.”
Desktop phones are, of course, not the only modes of communication that employees use to interact while inside or outside the office. Modern IP phones are capable of transferring calls to desktop software and mobile devices for a complete connection of every device an employee may use. This allows for seamless connectivity from any location and can enhance the mobility of any staff member.
Cisco is also not the only player in the market. Although it holds a large market share, it must content with other entities such as Yealink (News - Alert) which, just this summer, released its all-in-one videoconferencing endpoint which can connect to IP-PBX (News - Alert) infrastructures and UC systems already in place at an enterprise's headquarters. The company has even grabbed its own award from TMC (News - Alert) for innovation in the videoconferencing market. There are many choices for interested enterprise which may have outgrown their legacy systems or now desire the advanced functions inherent in IP-based communications platforms.