VoIP Phone Systems

One of the hottest markets in the world for Internet Protocol (IP)-based private branch exchanges (PBXs)—known in the industry as IP-PBXs—is China, research firm In-Stat (News - Alert) reported today.

 

In-Stat projects that revenue from IP served-based PBXs in China will increase from $164.1 million this year to $479.5 million in 2010.

 

Meanwhile, traditional PBX revenues in China will drop by a compound annual growth rate of 31.8 percent through 2010.

 

“Business users in China are seeing VoIP as a basic function in IP PBX (News - Alert) products,” In-Stat analyst Kevin Li noted in a statement.

 

Li added: “Several solutions designed to cope with various risk scenarios are gradually alleviating potential customers’ concerns of reliability and security for carrying voice over an open and standard data network.”

 

Concerns about reliability and security, along with uncertainty regarding return on investment, are causing the IP PBX market worldwide to be somewhat more sluggish than the industry had expected.

 

In-Stat commented on this in a recent report on the state of the IP PBX market. In that report, the research firm suggested that PBX suppliers need to change their business models to replace hardware revenues with software and services.

 

PBX providers, In-Stat said, also need to work with partners to change the way people communicate with each other. Staying on top of the game means keeping abreast of advancing technologies, such as dual-mode phones.

 

In its report today In-Stat also noted that, when it comes to IP-PBX adoption, small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) lag behind large enterprises.

 

One reason for sluggish adoption, wherever it occurs, could be that traditional network and voice channels may not be appropriate for IP voice services, In-Stat suggested. To address this, “vendors will have to train channel partners to meet their requirements.”

 

VoIP Phone Systems