The Best-Selling VoIP Telecom Equipment By Brand In Q3

The Usual Suspects

The VoIP and unified communications market has been pretty consistent in recent years, anchored by a dependable group of industry heavyweights. Third-quarter 2015 was no different.

In the VoIP telecom equipment arena, Cisco Systems continued to own the lion's share of the market, leaving even its closest competitor -- Avaya -- in the dust.

The following are the top five best-selling VoIP-enabled telecom equipment brands that were sold through distributors in the third quarter of this year, according to NPD Group, a Port Washington, N.Y.-based market-research firm that provides data from leading technology distributors. NPD Group's Distributor Track sales database is comprised primarily of U.S. Global Technology Distribution Council members.

5. ShoreTel

UC provider ShoreTel held tight with 1.1 percent of the VoIP-enabled telecom equipment market share this quarter. ShoreTel dipped down slightly from last year's 1.2 percent position, landing the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based vendor in fifth place.

Earlier this year, ShoreTel introduced a hybrid combination of its on-premise and cloud UC and VoIP solutions, ShoreTel Connect. The Connect platform allows solution providers to sell and deploy ShoreTel's products to customers in any way they choose to consume UC, whether it's on-site, in the cloud, or a combination of both, the vendor said.

4. Mitel

Ottawa-based Mitel came in at No. 4 in the rankings this past quarter, representing a 1.5 market share within the telecom equipment market. The Canadian provider is down a meager 0.1 percent this year when compared with holding 1.6 percent of the market share in third-quarter 2014.

Rumors swirled earlier this fall around the potential sale of the vendor when Elliott Management executives penned an open letter to Polycom's board of directors encouraging the videoconferencing vendor to acquire Mitel, noting that "the industry is ripe for consolidation."

3. Polycom

Speaking of the videoconferencing vendor, Polycom saw a slight bump in its market position this year, landing the San Jose, Calif.-based company in third place. Polycom owned 4.2 percent of the best-selling VoIP equipment market this year, up by a small 0.4 percentage from 3.8 percent market share in third-quarter 2014.

Polycom nabbed rival Avaya's vice president of global midmarket sales, industry veteran Chris Jones, as its new channel chief of Polycom Americas this past summer.

2. Avaya

Basking Ridge, N.J.-based UC provider Avaya came in second place this year with 15.2 percent of the market share for VoIP-enabled telecom equipment sold in the third quarter. Avaya gained some share from last year's 12.9 percent in third-quarter 2014, scooping up another 2.3 percent in 2015.

Avaya broke up Cisco's products on the NPD top 10 telecom hardware equipment sold through distributors for 2015. Avaya's s IP deskphone came in on the rankings at No. 4.

1. Cisco Systems

IT giant Cisco Systems dominated the VoIP telecom equipment market in first place, accounting for 73.3 percent of shipped equipment in 2015. Despite holding a majority of the market share, Cisco's share did dip slightly this quarter – approximately 2.2 percent -- when compared with last year's third-quarter 75.5 percent market share.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company ruled NPD's VoIP-enabled telecom equipment top 10 list with nine of its various hardware IP phone systems making the cut this year. Cisco was also named an industry leader in Gartner's 2015 UC Magic Quadrant report alongside Microsoft, Avaya and Mitel.