Report: Phone System Sales Up In Q2

Overall, enterprise voice system sales in North America jumped 12 percent in the second quarter, showing signs that the voice market is starting to stabilize after two quarters of decline, Infonetics Research said in a recent report.

The results are part of Infonetics' enterprise telephony market-share and forecast report that tracks TDM PBX and KTS phone systems, IP PBX phone systems, IP phones and VoIP gateways.

"The North American PBX market posted strong results in the second quarter, with a 12 percent sequential gain," Infonetics directing analyst for enterprise voice and data Matthias Machowinski wrote in the report. "North America declined by more than 20 percent two quarters in a row, and we are finally seeing some signs of normalcy returning to the market."

But while the North American market grew, the Asia-Pacific market was down 12 percent due to seasonal buying factors, Infonetics found.

"The overall improvement in revenue is a welcome sign, but the difficult worldwide economic climate continues to weigh heavily on the PBX market," Machowinski wrote.

According to Infonetics, worldwide sales of PBX and KTS phone systems were up 1 percent sequentially to $1.8 billion in the second quarter while sales over pure IP PBX phone systems were up 6 percent quarter-on-quarter driven by the continued migration from hybrid to pure IP switching.

Meanwhile, shipments of IP phones, which Infonetics said will have a bright future, grew 4 percent in the second quarter, more than the overall PBX market.

And Infonetics predicts VoIP gateways will be the telephony market's shining star, with VoIP gateways expected to hit $1.7 billion by 2013.

Along with sales, the vendor landscape in the second quarter was mixed, with overall revenue leaders Cisco Systems, Avaya, Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel Networks all posting voice-related gains, while others like Siemens and NEC lost share.