Enterprise telephony sales on the up in Q1

The enterprise telephony market is growing steadily again, with IP phone technology and the usual suspect vendors standing out as beneficiaries.

Nortel leads the market for corporate PBX phone systems and handsets with a 14.9 per cent share. It is joined in the global top four by, in order, Siemens, Avaya and Alcatel, though together these companies account for less than half of the market, according to the latest figures from Canalys.

The hottest type of enterprise telephony technology is the pure IP phone, with 69 per cent growth in the first quarter of 2004 compared to the corresponding period in 2003. This is a market where Cisco is leading the way, with over a third of Q1 sales.

However, the most popular type of option remains hybrid-IP, with growth of 55 per cent. Sales in the traditional voice PBX segment fell 35 per cent year-on-year.

IP telephony systems are becoming increasingly popular as they allow integration with computer and data networks, and nowadays the quality of call - especially over private networks - is usually very good.

The analyst house found that now IP isn't limited to larger user organisations.

The overall driver for the increase in spending is the general improvement in economies, with technology spending being freed up, rather than advances in technology attracting buyers.