A major researcher has just released vendor market share and forecasts from its 2nd quarter (2Q14) Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers report.
Nothing is constant in the ever-evolving technology landscape. Today’s much-hyped technology is suddenly passé as a more advanced one surfaces. So it comes as no surprise that VoIP and IMS markets are on decline, while VoLTE is gaining traction.
One recent article looking at a new set of data from Infonetics Research (News - Alert) notes that global service provider VoIP and IMS market dipped 6 percent annually and 12 percent sequentially to $878 million in Q2 2014.
The industry experts, however, are of the opinion that being merely at 6 percent, the decline is not giving off alarm signals at the moment.
In this tight market, one company stood out with all its market achievements and that is Huawei (News - Alert), the Chinese telecom vendor. The company currently leads the VoIP and IMS equipment market, accounting for 28 percent of market share in the second quarter.
Commanding 10 percent market share each, Genband and Ericsson (News - Alert) jointly grabbed second place. They were followed by Alcatel-Lucent (9 percent) and Nokia (News - Alert) Networks (8 percent).
To date, nationwide launches of voice over LTE (VoLTE) have taken place only in small countries and city-states such as South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Large-scale VoLTE rollout is set to kick off in North America and Japan toward the end of this year. The VoLTE-related activities are also picking up in Europe, Canada, and other parts of Asia. All these are likely to pump fresh oxygen into the IMS sector as the demands for IMS equipment related to VoLTE rise. All these will contribute to a complete rebound of IMS market in 2015, the report said.
Certain segments in VoIP/IMS product markets however posted year-over-year growth in Q2. These include home subscriber servers (HSSs), voice application servers (VASs), and media gateway control function (MGCF) equipment.
“At the end of 2013, we projected the IMS equipment market would slow in 2014 as large operators in North America and Asia Pacific commercially launch VoLTE services and capacity begins to be utilized, and this is indeed happening,” principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS at Infonetics Research Diane Myers noted in a statement.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson