As with last quarter, the African and Western European markets declined in comparison with the same quarter of last year. The African market shrunk the most due to fallout from the Arab Spring uprisings, though country-level performances remained mixed. Western Europe, which was down 6.2% year-on-year, also revealed major variances at a country level, with Spain and Italy performing particularly badly. The Middle East experienced a modest year-on-year increase of 1.4%. Central and Eastern Europe demonstrated a much stronger year-on-year improvement, with a growth rate in the region of 20%. This was driven primarily by Russia, which has been recovering strongly on the back of sustained high oil and gas prices, though shipment volumes retreated in comparison with Q1 2011.
Competition in the EMEA market remained intense in Q2 2011, as the top 5 regional players — Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Siemens, Avaya, and Aastra — all achieved market shares of over 10%, with an average of less than 1% between them. It was a difficult quarter for market incumbents Alcatel-Lucent (France) and Siemens (Germany). Both vendors declined in their respective domestic markets, thereby boosting Cisco’s lead. Siemens attained the number one position in Western Europe, while Aastra clinched the second spot and Alcatel-Lucent the third.
“Despite tough conditions in the core call control market, we expect IP enablement to bolster overall unified communications growth throughout the remainder of the year,” said Canalys Senior Analyst Duncan Clark. “IP adoption enables the easier integration of unified communications solutions, such as rich presence, messaging, conferencing, and integrated email. With the ongoing demand for enterprise mobility and the need to integrate multiple devices, such as tablets and smart phones, the opportunity to sell more sophisticated solutions increases. Vendors must help channel partners transition to value-added sales if they are to capitalize on this trend and survive today’s tough business environment.”