Cisco, Huawei, Polycom lead video conferencing market

The video conferencing equipment market experienced an overall decrease in revenue in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15), although it is expected the market will grow as video is considered a high priority for many organisations.

The IDC Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing and Telepresence Equipment Qview showed overall videoconferencing equipment revenue decreased -21% quarter over quarter for 1Q15, but increased 2.2% year over year.

Total worldwide enterprise video equipment market revenue in 1Q15 was just over $484 million, down from about $613 million in 1Q14.

The total number of videoconferencing units sold in 1Q15 decreased -16.4% quarter over quarter, but increased 20.5% year over year.

Key vendor highlights

• Cisco's 1Q15 results showed a revenue decline of -18.5% quarter over quarter, but an 8.8% year-over-year revenue increase. The vendor remained the leader in enterprise videoconferencing equipment with a 42.6% share of the worldwide market.
• Polycom's revenue decreased -15.7% quarter over quarter and 10.1% year over year in 1Q15. Polycom ranked second in enterprise videoconferencing equipment with a 25.4% share of the worldwide market.
• Huawei's quarter-over-quarter revenue decreased -45.3%, but increased 43.2% year over year in 1Q15. Huawei ranked third with an 11% share of the worldwide enterprise videoconferencing market.

"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 organisations," says Petr Jirovsky, Worldwide Networking Trackers research manager.

"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," he says.

Market segment results

• Multi-codec telepresence equipment revenue ($18.7 million) was down -47.4% quarter over quarter and -36.2% year over year in 1Q15. Unit shipments were also down -46.3% sequentially and -30% year over year.
• Room-based videoconferencing system revenue ($327 million) decreased -14.8% quarter over quarter, but increased 9.9% year over year. Unit shipments decreased -15.2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, but increased 21% compared to 1Q14.
• Personal videoconferencing systems revenue ($44 million), including executive desktop systems, decreased -22.6% quarter over quarter, but increased 37.8% year over year. Unit shipments were down -19.9% sequentially, but increased 19.3% compared to one year ago.
• Video infrastructure equipment revenue ($93.7 million), including MCUs and other video-related infrastructure, decreased -30.8% quarter over quarter and -17.9% year over year. In the Asia/Pacific region, revenue decreased -18.1% quarter over quarter, but increased 9.0% year over year.

"The video equipment market results continue to reflect the on-going market transition from a primarily hardware-based reporting model to one impacted by lower-cost endpoints and growing interest in more software-based solutions and cloud services," says Rich Costello, ICD Enterprise Communications Infrastructure senior analyst.

"A first quarter highlight had room-based and personal videoconferencing systems showing year-over-year growth in both revenue and unit shipments," he says.