The International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing and Telepresence Equipment QView has shown declining results for the first quarter of 2014 (1Q14), with overall videoconferencing (VC) equipment revenue decreasing -20% quarter-over-quarter and -15,9% year-over-year.
Total worldwide enterprise video equipment market revenue in 1Q14 reached $473,5-million. The total number of video units sold in 1Q14 was also down -13,3% quarter-over-quarter and 6,2% year-over-year.
From a market segment perspective, multi-codec immersive telepresence equipment revenue was down -25,2% quarter-over-quarter and -33,5% year-over-year, with immersive telepresence units down -34,7% quarter-over-quarter and -25,9% year-over-year.
Room-based video system revenue was down -13,9% quarter-over-quarter and -10,1% year-over-year. Room-based units sold were down -13,7% quarter-over-quarter, but only declined -1% year-over-year.
Video infrastructure equipment – including MCUs and other video-related infrastructure products – declined -29,2% quarter-over-quarter and -13% year-over-year.
Regionally, only Latin America (1,8%) showed positive quarter-over-quarter revenue growth in 1Q14. All the other major regions showed quarter-over-quarter revenue declines. And all the major regions showed year-over-year revenue declines in 1Q14 – Europe Middle East & Africa (-19,8%), Asia/Pacific (-16,4%), North America (-13,4%), and Latin America (-5,1%).
“We continue to see the impact of delayed customer buying decisions, lower-cost systems, more software-centric products, and competitive cloud-based video service offerings on the worldwide enterprise video equipment market,” says Rich Costello, senior analyst: enterprise communications infrastructure at IDC.
“The weak vendor results are also indicative of the on-going transition from a primarily hardware-based reporting model to one impacted by the interest in and growth of video subscription services. On the bright side, most or all of these vendors are now offering cloud-based video alternatives to customers too – in addition to their own lower cost, premises-based systems.”
Cisco’s 1Q14 results showed decreases of -27,8% quarter-over-quarter and -22,4% year-over-year in video equipment revenue. But Cisco remains the leader in enterprise videoconferencing equipment with a 40,1% share of the worldwide market.
Polycom’s revenue decreased -7,3% quarter-over-quarter and -8,4% year-over-year in 1Q14. Polycom ranks second in enterprise videoconferencing equipment with a 28,9% share of the worldwide market.
Huawei’s quarter-over-quarter revenue decreased -42% quarter-over-quarter and -1,9% year-over-year in 1Q14. Huawei still ranks third with a 7,8% share of the worldwide enterprise videoconferencing market.
“As dismal as these quarterly numbers are, video as a key component of collaboration continues to place high on the list of priorities for many organisations,” says Petr Jirovsky, research manager: Worldwide Networking Trackers at IDC.
“IDC believes that among the challenges customers are currently trying to work through are a market transition and determining exactly what, when, and how to provision their video deployments as more software-centric and cloud-based service offerings become part of the enterprise video market landscape.”
