Enterprise Videoconferencing Sees Double Digit Growth

Adoption of enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence is accelerating, according to a report released by the International Data Corporation (IDC). The market grew by 20.5 percent to reach $2.7 billion in 2011, compared to 16.6 percent growth in 2010. The largest increase occurred in the single-codec telepresence segment, which now accounts for 55 percent of the total enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence market.

IDC's Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing and Telepresence Qview, which was released at the end of February, examined worldwide, cross-sector growth of enterprise telepresence, video multipoint conferencing units (MCUs), immersive telepresence, personal videoconferencing, and other enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence technologies. The report measured the market based on factory revenue and unit shipments.

The video infrastructure equipment segment, which includes MCUs, gateways, video network servers, and appliances, grew by 22.5 percent in 2011, while the immersive telepresence segment shrank by 21.6 percent. According to IDC, the decrease in immersive telepresence revenue is evidence of "the continuing trend of video pushing down market in the enterprise."

Cisco was the market leader in 2011 with a 54.3 percent share. The company's revenue increased by 48.7 percent in 2011. Polycom also did well in 2011 with 20.8 percent annual growth.

"Growth has been spurred on by more well-defined video use cases among organizations," said Rich Costello, senior analyst, enterprise communications infrastructure, at IDC, in a prepared statement. "We also expect growth over the next several years to be bolstered by the impact of video integrated with vendors' unified communications and collaboration portfolios, and increasing video usage among small workgroups, desktop users, and mobile device users."

IDC, a subsidiary of the International Data Group (IDG), provides market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

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