Although the VoIP switch and IMS market was down four percent sequentially in 3Q12, it is touted as being up eight percent from the year-ago quarter (3Q11), according to a recent report from Infonetics (News - Alert) Research.

Emerging markets in the Asia Pacific and Latin America contributed for a greater share of this growth in 3Q12, each posting high single digit sequential growth and strong double digit year-over-year increases.

At this time, Huawei (News - Alert) leads in the overall VoIP and IMS market, with around a 25 percent market share, primarily due to solid sales across its IMS and NGN VoIP product lines. Additionally, Acme Packet (News - Alert) reigns in the session border controller (SBC) segment, while Sonus jumped to over a 20 percent market share in the quarter, solidifying its position as a strong number two.

In the IMS market, there is a tight competition in 3Q12 among Ericsson (News - Alert), Huawei and Nokia Siemens Networks as there is continued expansion within existing IMS networks.

The growth of the carrier VoIP and IMS market is attributed to a number of variables coming together, says Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research.

“First, we’re entering the long-tail of the legacy softswitch and trunking gateway market, with opportunities for early equipment replacement and new deals that will help slow declines and provide stabilization,” Myers added in a statement. “Second, IMS deployments continue to grow, and there are pockets of VoLTE and wireless spending.”

Based on these factors, Infonetics Research predicts that 2012 will be highlighted as the first annual growth period in the carrier VoIP and IMS market in over four years.

Infonetics Research‘s carrier VoIP and IMS report provides worldwide and regional market share, size, forecasts, analysis, and trends for trunk media gateways, session border controllers (SBCs), media servers, Class 4 and Class 5 softswitches, voice application servers, IMS core equipment (HSS, BGCF, MGCF, CSCF servers), IMS application servers, and VoIP and IMS subscribers.

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