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News analysis from Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert) regarding the World Enterprise Telephony Platform and Endpoint Markets indicate that the market earned revenues of $7.7 billion in 2009.

It is estimated that 37.3 million enterprise telephony line and 12.6 million units of Internet protocol desktop phones were shipped during the year 2009. In addition about 12 million IP desktop communication clients were also shipped.

These figures in an economy characterized by recession are very challenging. In addition the year 2009 was characterized by certain landmark events that were bound to have an impact on competition and technology evolution.

Technically, although the battered economy has surfaced, the effects of recession are expected to continue for another year and a half. Of course, in terms of world demand for telephony solutions, Frost & Sullivan paints a brighter picture for the year 2010.

North America is expected to witness acceleration in IT and communications spending in the year 2010, while Europe, Asia Pacific, Central America and Latin America will follow suit in 2011 and 2012.

But that's just one side of the picture. Major enterprise telephony vendors experienced a steep dip in sales, and the former telco giant Nortel (News - Alert) Networks collapsed.

'The fall of Nortel signaled the end of an era and set alarm bells ringing for telephony providers,' Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Alaa Saayed, said, adding that it was clear that change was imminent and established paradigms would be called into question.

The time division multiplexing market was expected to experience a downslide; however, IP shipments were supposed to resume their growth trajectory, triggered by the improvement of macro-economic conditions and the need to replace outdated systems.

In the future, technological developments, such as softswitch systems, virtualization, and unified communications will drive equipment upgrades.

The only way to combat recession would be to innovate and continue to invest in technology development. Other was to offset the negative impact would be major acquisitions, and reorganizations such as mergers between companies.

An aggressive approach to nullify the negative impact of the economic downturn would be the introduction of new flexible IP telephony solutions, the implementation of very aggressive customer programs, and an increased focus on channel expansion strategies.

'To ensure business progression in this scenario, participants must gradually shift resources from hardware to software, target the underserved small and medium business market with appealing solutions, tap into new global markets, and strive for interoperability as well as openness,'the analyst said.

World Enterprise Telephony Platform and Endpoint Markets is part of the Enterprise Communications (News - Alert) Growth Partnership Services program. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends that were evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation, and implementation of powerful growth strategies.