When it comes to the IP-based communications market, an important segment to look at in terms of growth, both now and next year, is the IP PBX sector.

 

A recent report from industry research and consulting firm Dell’ (News - Alert)Oro Group drives that point home. The firm found that revenues for the IP PBX (News - Alert) market grew 10 percent during the third quarter of 2006, and that the sector will become the fastest growing one in the industry next year.

 

More specifically, Dell’Oro projects that, during 2007, revenues from IP PBXs will surpass those from traditional PBX and key systems.

 

Dell’Oro analyst Steve Raab noted in the report that IP telephony offers important advantages to enterprises, including advanced voice applications and unified communications solutions. That fact is helping to drive growth in the industry.

 

“In the third quarter, IP line shipments increased for all but one vendor, and we project strong growth in IP line adoption in 2007,” Raab said in a statement.

Revenues from PBX sales in the enterprise space climbed nine percent during third quarter 2005, Dell’Oro added, in part because of strong sales in Europe. The European market continues to boom this year; during the most recent quarter, Avaya (News - Alert) and Cisco both exceeded growth rates of 17 percent in their shipment of lines in the region.

 

Another high-growth region for IP PBXs is China. In a recent report, In-Stat (News - Alert) projected that revenues from IP PBXs in that country will increase from $164.1 million this year to $479.5 million in 2010.

 

While sales of IP PBXs will increase, the research firm predicts that traditional PBX revenues will drop by a compound growth rate of 31.8 percent through 2010.

 

IP PBX growth in China also is driven in large part by business users, In-Stat said, who see VoIP as a basic function of PBX products.