Gloomy European economy checks VC sales
19 September 2012
The enterprise VC and telepresence market is being held back by a sluggish European market, which is further hampered by declines in public sector spending, according to market research firm, Infonetics Research.
Infonetics claims that global VC and telepresence revenues fell by 6% to $644 million in the second quarter of 2012 in recently released excerpts from its second quarter 2012 Enterprise Telepresence and Video Conferencing Equipment report.
PBX-based systems, driven by sales of videophones, saw some growth whilst unit shipments of telepresence and desktop systems were down more than 45% year on year.
Infotechnics said that, despite a check in market growth, demand for VC and telepresence systems remained strong.
"Economic woes in Europe, declines in public sector spending, and a shift toward lower-priced video conferencing products drove sales of video conferencing and telepresence equipment lower from the year-ago quarter," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise networks and video at Infonetics Research.
Machowinski adds: "We view the current revenue slowdown as temporary rather than a fundamental decline in demand, as overall shipments of hardware endpoints are still up by double digits year-over-year, signalling on-going strong demand for videoconferencing capabilities."