Hosted VoIP Market Research Review

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of research on business VoIP and hosted VoIP PBX. This has resulted in encouraging enlightenment. So, in the name of helping mankind, I am listing excellent free facts on the past, present and future of the hosted VoIP market below. I will also provide commentary on each stat, to give you some background info.

Source: Infonetics

For the first half of 2009, the worldwide VoIP services market grew to $20.7 billion (expected to be 30 billion by 2013).

Commentary

So this is an excellent stat. It tells us that the worldwide VoIP service market will keep growing. It’s great to use as a top level piece of information when starting presentation on the hosted VoIP PBX sector of the business VoIP market.

Source: Infonetics

We expect hosted UC services to take off, with worldwide revenue doubling between 2009 and 2013, and we forecast SIP trunking service revenue to hit an 89 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013,” Diane Myers, Infonetics analyst, said.

Commentary

Love this right! How could you not. The firm is saying that hosted unified communications services should see their revenue double by 2013. Excellent information, but it’s not quite the perfect piece of information for hosted VoIP providers in the business VoIP space.

The issue is that we are addressing hosted unified communications technologies, and while hosted VoIP PBX systems are a sector of the hosted unified communications market, they do not comprise the whole market. So we really don’t know exactly how much hosted VoIP PBX service sales are contributing to the hosted unified communications piece of the pie. But it is still great to see the hosted UC sector is growing as a whole.

According to TMCnet reporting on Wainhouse Research Info

The UC (Unified Communications) market is projected to reach $30 billion by 2013.

Commentary

Nice to see here that again unified communications technologies are predicted to grow. But the issue arises again, while hosted VoIP systems are a part of the unified communications pie, they do not offer the exact statistic giving insight into hosted VoIP growth. Still encouraging information, though.

Source Infonetics Research:

Commentary

OK, now I must admit that I really like this chart. I do… It shows that IP Connectivity (SIP trunking) is predicted to make up a large amount of the VoIP service revenue in 2013. It also shows that Managed IP PBX (premise based systems) are predicted to make up less of the VoIP service revenue in the future. Now keep in mind this does not mean that the premise based industry will not continue to grow, what it means is that when compared to the other two sectors listed it will be a significantly less dominant revenue generator.

Now take a look at the Hosted UC business. Looks pretty good, right? That portion of the business is going to continue to stay strong and grow significantly with the industry. By 2013 they are predicting Hosted UC to grow significantly and be a much larger revenue generator than premise based systems. Also, keep in mind that IP Connectivity often plays a role in serving hosted VoIP providers so it is important to realize that that revenue is in some ways attributed to the hosted and premise based business.

OK, so my issue with this VoIP service revenue breakdown is that it again doesn’t segment hosted VoIP PBX providers. Of course they are part of the hosted business, but how much of a part are they. Regardless it is good to see hosted VoIP as part of the largest piece of the pie.

Source: Gartner Inc.

There are 10 million small business telephone systems in the United States with less than 100 lines, according to Gartner Inc., and this segment spends $63 billion worldwide for basic telecommunications.

Commentary

This is a nice piece of business VoIP info. I have no issues with it other than it came out in 2008. But it’s pretty good, actually. This is essentially the hosted VoIP demographic and you can see it is a large market.

Source: Forrester Research

Forrester Research says that SMBs are 2.5 to three times as interested in managed IP telephony and VoIP services as are enterprises.

Commentary

So this is another great stat for hosted VoIP. It’s nice to see that there is a real interest in the technology by business owners for business VoIP service. And why shouldn’t there be, I mean, it saves you money and gives you a ton of features.

Source: VoIP-News

According to a study from market research firm ABI Research, the global market for hosted services will exceed $34 billion in 2012, of which the North American portion (where most of the cable operators pursuing the small business market are located) will amount to $11.6 billion. (Study released 2008)

Another market research company, In-Stat, believes that strong growth in hosted VoIP will remain steady and will exceed 3 million seats in service by 2010. There are currently about 400,000 seats in service in the U.S., the majority in the small and medium-sized market. (Study released 2008)

Commentary

I like this information a lot. It shows that hosted VoIP PBX is growing and so are the VoIP services attached to it. In fact, it even came with this graph which shows directly how much hosted VoIP has grown. I mean you can’t argue with this. Below you can see that businesses of all sizes are adopting hosted VoIP PBX systems. Almost seems like it’s spreading like wildfire.

Source VoIP-News Hosted PBX Buyers Guide

Source: Infonetics

The current sweet spot of the North American hosted VoIP market is small business (those with fewer than 100 employees). Roughly two-thirds of all hosted VoIP seats sold in the first half of 2009 went to small businesses

Commentary

So the sweet spot is small business… Hmm… OK. Can’t argue with that I guess.

Source: Small Business Administration

Small firms represent 99.9 percent of the 29.6 million businesses in the US.

Commentary

Wow, well if I was a dealer selling hosted VoIP PBX system I guess I would want to hear this info, seems like there is a ton of opportunity.

Source In-Stat (Taken from Press Release on Feb 1, 2010):

In-Stat projects US hosted VoIP seats in service will continue to grow steadily to over 3 mln in 2010, up from 373,000 in 2006. Cost savings remains the primary attraction to hosted VoIP solutions, but the value associated with business-grade solutions is resonating more strongly among businesses that are willing to pay for them.

According to In-State, Hosted IP Centrex has now surpassed Broadband IP Telephony as the leading revenue-generating, carrier-based business VoIP solution.

Commentary

This shows tremendous growth for hosted VoIP seats! And what news to hear that hosted VoIP PBX service has now surpassed broadband as the leading revenue generator for carriers pushing business VoIP. I got so excited that I made a chart to depict the In-Stat seat growth data for the hosted VoIP industry.

Based on predictions from In-Stat, this graph depicts the amount of growth per seat which the hosted VoIP industry will see in 2010

Summary

So that is all the info I’ve come across so far in my research that is readily at my disposal. The hosted VoIP PBX sector is an excellent segment of the business VoIP industry to be in. I hope you have enjoyed this free information. There is much more VoIP industry information available if you would like to pay one of the research firms listed above for it.

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So now that I’ve shared all my info with you, please add any industry info you have below! Let’s make this a great hosted VoIP PBX  industry resource!