Market analysts, such as MZA, estimate that over the next 5 years, hosted PBX offers are expected to capture no more than 10-15% of the total number of the lines in the SMB PBX market.
Hosted PBX offers will be 'ones to watch' during 2007, and can be expected to make some in-roads in the 40+ extension segment. Below 40, most current soft switch implementations have insufficient partitioning capability to cost-effectively address this segment today.
Although there is no doubt that more granular and scalable hosted offers will emerge, it most likely that hybrid hosted offers will gain most traction for smaller SMBs. In this scenario, basic telephony services (directory, hold, transfer, auto-attendant) are supported by the CPE with more advanced capabilities (e.g. voicemail, conferencing, fixed mobile convergence etc) hosted by the service providers. Avaya has already launched the one-X Quick Edition peer-to-peer telephony solution in the US market that is ideal for use in such hybrid hosted environments. Launch into the UK market and other European countries (as previously reported in Comms Business) is planned before the end of 2007."