Positive signs for enterprise videoconferencing equipment market as Cisco leads the pack

The worldwide enterprise videoconferencing and telepresence equipment market has shown some positive results in the second quarter of 2015, according to IDC.

Overall videoconferencing equipment revenue increased 4.8% quarter over quarter and 5.1% year over year, the analyst firm says.

Cisco remained the leader in enterprise videoconferencing equipment, holding a 45.6% share of the market.

The enterprise video infrastructure equipment sector continued its decline due to the increasing availability of video cloud service offerings, IDC says.

Total worldwide enterprise video equipment market revenue in 2Q15 was over $507 million, up from $484 million in 1Q15. The total number of videoconferencing units sold in 2Q15 increased 7.4% quarter over quarter and 21.0% year over year in 2Q15.

IDC says multi-codec telepresence equipment revenue increased 70.3% quarter over quarter and 8.0% year over year. Unit shipments were also up 67.7% sequentially and 14.8% year over year.

Room-based videoconferencing system revenue increased 3.7% over the first quarter and 8.8% compared to one year ago. Unit shipments increased 1.6% quarter over quarter and 11.1% year over year.

Personal videoconferencing systems revenue, including executive desktop systems, increased 36% quarter over quarter and 80.8% year over year, IDC says. Unit shipments were up 26.0% sequentially and 58.8% on an annual basis.

Video infrastructure equipment revenue, including MCUs and other video-related infrastructure, continued its declining trend, decreasing -19.4% quarter over quarter and -30.0% year over year.

Asia/Pacific revenue increased 1.7% sequentially and 3.8% on an annual basis.

North America (U.S. and Canada) revenue increased 15.4% quarter over quarter and 6.5% year over year.

Europe, Middle East - Africa (EMEA) revenue increased 2.1% compared to the first quarter of 2015 and 9.0% year over year.

Latin America revenue decreased -24.9% quarter over quarter and -19.7% year over year.

"Some much needed good news for the enterprise videoconferencing market – revenue and video endpoint shipments were up in all major regions in the second quarter, except Latin America," says Rich Costello, senior analyst, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, at IDC.

"A surprising 2Q15 highlight had multi-codec telepresence systems up in both revenue and unit shipments, as the availability of some new high-end systems positively impacted the market," he says.

"This interrupted a downward trend for these high-end video solutions."

Vendor Highlights: •    Cisco's 2Q15 results showed a 12.0% revenue increase quarter over quarter and 24.9% year over year. Cisco remained the leader in enterprise videoconferencing equipment with a 45.6% share of the worldwide market, up from 42.6% in 1Q15. •    Polycom's revenue increased 2.0% quarter over quarter, but declined -14.1% year over year in 2Q15. Polycom ranked second in enterprise videoconferencing equipment with a 24.7% share of the worldwide market, down from 25.4% in 1Q15. •    Huawei's quarter-over-quarter revenue decreased -4.8%, but increased 15.0% year over year in 2Q15. Huawei ranked third with a 10% share of the worldwide enterprise videoconferencing market, down from 11.0% in the first quarter of 2015.

"IDC survey adoption data indicates that video is still a key component of collaboration and continues to place high on the list of priorities for many organizations," says Petr Jirovsky, Research Manager, Worldwide Networking Trackers.

"And customers continue to work through determining how best to provision their video deployments, as more software-centric and cloud-based service offerings become part of the enterprise video market landscape."