Videoconferencing, Telepresence Set For 5-Year Spike

"Sales of telepresence and videoconferencing equipment surged in the past two years, with growth accelerating in 2011 as video took off on enterprise IP PBX systems,” comments Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst/Enterprise Networks and Video at Infonetics Research.

He continues, “The videoconferencing market is being fueled by a confluence of factors, including the proliferation of video-capable equipment, demographic and communication trends that favor video, industry use cases like tele-learning and tele-medicine, and, most importantly, customer demand.”

According to the market-research firm:

>> The global enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence market jumped 15 percent, to $882 million, between the third and fourth quarters of 2011, setting a record high for quarterly revenue.?
>> For full-year 2011, sales of videoconferencing and telepresence equipment were up 34 percent, to $2.99 billion.
>> PBX-based systems had the strongest performance for the year, growing 80 percent as they offer a cost-effective way to enjoy multi-modal communication using existing infrastructure.
>> Market leader Cisco shows no signs of slowing down: Its 4Q11 revenue jumped 25 percent sequentially, and market share is up 3 points to 52.5 percent.
>> Dedicated multipurpose-room video systems made up more than half of the enterprise videoconferencing equipment market in 2011, and it will continue to be the biggest revenue-generator among enterprise video solutions.?      

Infonetics expects a cumulative $22 billion will be spent by enterprises on videoconferencing and telepresence hardware and software between 2012 and 2016.?