“Contrary to most analyst predictions, we still see the traditional IP PBX business remaining strong. It appears that the market has taken a look at the first generation of IP products and said “yes, we see benefits but we also see a lot of proprietary technology that locks us in to an expensive data networking strategy”. That said we are seeing increased interest in pure IP from the channel.
The hype surrounding SIP could be the excuse the market needs for a vigorous increase in activity. We see this manifesting itself in two ways - firstly, with continued growth in the IP PBX market as SIP trunking connectivity is added to deliver all the connectivity options a customer could wish for. Secondly, we can expect to see the emergence of a variety of cost-effective appliances, such as robust Linux based IP systems, which combine more applications and embrace a more open standards approach for IP desktop connectivity and authentication - removing the lock into expensive proprietary date networking architectures.”