Cisco remains top dog in enterprise videoconferencing equipment

Enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence equipment showed positive results in the fourth quarter of 2014 with overall videoconferencing equipment revenue increasing 15.8% quarter over quarter and 4.0% year over year.

Total worldwide enterprise video equipment market revenue in 4Q14 was $613 million, up from $529 million in 3Q14. The total number of videoconferencing units sold in 4Q14 increased 15.7% quarter over quarter and 25.0% year over year.

For the full year 2014, revenue declined -6.8% versus 2013, the third consecutive year of decreasing full-year revenue in this market.

From a market segment perspective in 4Q14: •    Multi-codec telepresence equipment revenue ($32 million) declined -6.9% quarter over quarter and -19.4% year over year. •    Room-based video system revenue ($388 million) increased 11.8% quarter over quarter and 12.6% year over year. •    Personal videoconferencing systems revenue ($57 million) – including executive desktop systems – increased significantly, 64.8% quarter over quarter and 25.4% year over year. •    Video infrastructure equipment revenue ($136 million) - including MCUs and other video-related infrastructure – increased 19.9% quarter over quarter, but declined -14.9% year over year.

Regionally in 4Q14, Asia/Pacific, revenue increased 12.2% quarter over quarter and 5.4% year over year.

North America (U.S. and Canada) revenue increased 11.4% quarter over quarter and 3.7% year over year; Latin America revenue increased 52.8% quarter over quarter and 52.6% year over year; in Europe Middle East - Africa (EMEA), revenue increased 18.8% quarter over quarter, but declined -4.0% year over year.

"Although the worldwide videoconferencing equipment market enjoyed positive quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year revenue growth in some market segments in 4Q14, overall the market experienced its third consecutive year of declining revenue in the full-year 2014," says Rich Costello, senior analyst, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure at IDC.

"The results are reflective of the ongoing market transition from a primarily hardware-based technology to one impacted by the growing interest in software-based solutions and video subscription services." Key Vendor Updates: •    Cisco's 4Q14 results showed a 15.6% revenue increase quarter over quarter, but a year-over-year decline of -3.6%. Cisco remained the leader in enterprise videoconferencing equipment with a 41.3% share of the worldwide market, on par with its 41.4% share in 3Q14. •    Polycom's revenue increased 2.4% quarter over quarter, but decreased -1.2% year over year in 4Q14. Polycom ranked second in enterprise videoconferencing equipment with a 23.8% share of the worldwide market, down from 26.9% in 3Q14. •    Huawei's revenue increased significantly both quarter over quarter (70.3%) and year over year (51.8%) in 4Q14. Huawei ranked third with a 15.9% share of the worldwide enterprise videoconferencing market, up from 10.8% in 3Q14.

"IDC survey adoption data indicates that video continues to be a key component of collaboration and places high on the list of priorities for many organizations," says Petr Jirovsky, research manager, Worldwide Networking Trackers.

"IDC believes that among the challenges customers are currently working through are determining exactly when and how to provision their video deployments as more software-centric and cloud-based service offerings become part of the enterprise video market landscape."