IDC Expects the Growth in Asia/Pacific Unified Communications On-Premise Infrastructure Market to Slow Down Due to Shifts to Cloud-based Models and Smaller Form Factor Endpoints

idcSingapore and Hong Kong, October 9, 2014 – IDC finds the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) Unified Communications (UC) On-Premise Infrastructure market grew 1% year-on-year (YoY) in the first half of 2014. The market is expected to grow to US$3.9 billion in 2018, at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.2% based on factory/ vendor revenues.

 

The PRC continues to be the largest market, followed by Australia, Korea and India respectively. While larger markets such as Australia and the PRC have slowed down on YoY basis in 1H 2014, absolute revenue continues to be significant. From a revenue perspective, there are signs of continued slow-down in on-premise hardware. This is because enterprises continue to have more confidence in cloud solutions and/or deploy smaller form factor endpoints to complement their existing communication investments. Both trends are also driving down equipment prices.

 

From an enterprise perspective, Cloud-based UC are proving to be more compelling for many organizations given its flexibility, scale and pay-as-you-go pricing. A number of telecom providers and equipment vendors are capturing this shift through their own offerings. This includes Cisco-Telstra, Avaya-BT, Avaya-HP offerings. Videoconferencing as a Service (VCaaS) and Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solutions are also gaining traction. Key examples are BlueJeans and Interactive Intelligence respectively. Adoption for cloud-based UC solutions will continue to be the strongest in Australia, Korea, India and Singapore.

 

IDC believes that on-premise UC deployment will co-exist with off-premise solutions at least for the next couple of years, creating a hybrid environment both in local and global contexts. There will be greater choice of solutions and flexibility for enterprises as service providers innovate and add capabilities and products that are relevant to the customer’s business requirements rapidly.

 

“There are also adoption shifts happening within major industry verticals. While cloud-based UC adoption continues to grow the fastest in retail, education, health care, hospitality and professional services, a number of other large industry verticals continue to prefer premise-based solutions. This includes finance, manufacturing, government and telecoms. It is imperative for service providers to understand where to pick their battles,” says Ryan Tay, Senior Research Manager for Telecoms and Unified Communications, IDC Asia/Pacific. “On top of that, they will also need to have strong professional services capabilities as most environments will need to integrate into legacy systems.”

 

IDC Asia/Pacific Semiannual UC, Collaboration and Video Tracker provides the market size and vendor share for enterprise telephony, videoconferencing, contact center and collaboration application products on a semiannual basis.

About IDC Trackers

IDC Tracker products provide accurate and timely market size, vendor share, and forecasts for hundreds of technology markets from more than 100 countries around the globe. Using proprietary tools and research processes, IDC’s Trackers are updated on a semiannual, quarterly, and monthly basis. Tracker results are delivered to clients in user-friendly excel deliverables and on-line query tools. The IDC Tracker Charts app allows users to view data charts from the most recent IDC Trackerproducts on their iPhone and iPad.

 

About IDC

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,000 IDC analysts provide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. In 2014, IDC celebrates its 50th anniversary of providing strategic insights to help clients achieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world’s leading technology media, research, and events company. You can learn more about IDC by visiting www.idc.com.