Infonetics Research recently published 3 voice over IP and unified communications reports:

• Communication Expenditures and IP PBX Vendor Ratings: North American Enterprise Survey
• VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers, a market size, share, and forecast report tracking business and residential/SOHO (small office/home office) VoIP services
• Enterprise Unified Communication, VoIP, and TDM Equipment, a quarterly market size, share, and forecast report, fourth quarter (4Q09) edition

"The enterprise telephony market was hit hard in 2009 due to the recession, but based on the latest quarterly shipment figures and results from our March 2010 survey of North American enterprises about IP PBX spending, it appears that the bleeding has stopped and 2010 promises to be a better year, good news for vendors and service providers alike," notes Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research. "From our IP PBX survey, it appears that businesses are increasingly embracing a hosted services model, as their capacity needs will depend on how robust the economic recovery is, and hosted services allow them to more easily ramp their capacity needs up and down without a huge cash layout for equipment."

Diane Myers, directing analyst for service provider VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research, adds: "VoIP services sold to the residential/SOHO market still make up the lion's share (about three-quarters) of total VoIP service revenue, but we saw a pickup in business VoIP service revenue growth in late 2009 and service providers report that they are seeing increasing interest in hosted VoIP services across all sizes of businesses, including large enterprises. We expect this trend to continue as more companies turn to hosted services for their voice needs, with business VoIP services making up almost a third of all VoIP service revenue by 2014."

IP PBX ENTERPRISE SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

• Most phone extensions today are delivered via IP PBXs, having out-shipped TDM PBXs for years, and are finally taking up a sizable share of the installed base
• Businesses expect to increase their phone extensions at a slightly higher-than-normal growth rate over the next 2 years (15%), which can be attributed to hiring and growing following the recession
• Applications expenditures are expected to rise 14% in 2010; they will play a crucial role in increasing an organization's efficiency and employee productivity
• Cisco leads the list of deployed IP PBX vendors by far, with 18% of respondents have Cisco installed today

VOIP AND UC SERVICES MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

• Service provider revenue from residential/SOHO and business VoIP services increased 20% between 2008 and 2009, to $41.6 billion
• IP connectivity services are the fastest growing segment of the business VoIP services market, followed by hosted VoIP and unified communication services and managed IP PBX services
• The sweet spot of the North American IP Centrex services market continues to be small businesses (fewer than 100 employees), although service providers are increasingly signing new customers with more than 100 employees
• Central and Latin America saw the strongest revenue growth for VoIP services in 2009, led by the residential VoIP segment, which jumped 84%
• The number of residential/SOHO VoIP subscribers grew 24% in 2009 to 132 million worldwide
• NTT, Comcast, and France Télécom are the world's largest VoIP service providers, together holding roughly 20% of the world's residential and SOHO VoIP subscribers

4Q09 ENTERPRISE VOIP AND UC EQUIPMENT MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

• In 4Q09, worldwide sales of enterprise unified communication, VoIP, and TDM equipment together grew 3% sequentially, to $2.2 billion
• For the 2009 year, revenue dropped 21%, from $10.4 billion to $8.2 billion
• Revenue is expected to see a lift in 2010, led by pure IP PBX phone systems, as worldwide economic conditions improve
• Cisco continues to lead the pure IP PBX system market, although their annual revenue is down in 2009 from 2008, while NEC and Aastra made big gains in this segment