Global UC Market Predicted To Reach Almost $76 Billion By 2020

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Study concludes growth in burgeoning Unified Communications (UC) field over next six years

The global unified communication market is expected to reach $75.81 billion by 2020, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc.

The study concludes that over the next six years, both an increase in mobile workforce and increasing enterprise mobility will have a favorable impact on the global unified communication market. Another factor in market growth will be the growing demand and proliferation of smartphones over the forecast period.

In the application segment, enterprises are expected to dominate the market in the next years and will account for the largest share in the global UC market. Unified communication enables enterprises to have better customer engagement, connected employees, and better operational agility. Some sectors, such as government, education, and healthcare show much promise for UC.

A particular driving force for the industry is the burgeoning adoption of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives by large enterprises as well as SMBs. While there is great potential, costly initial investment and the need to establish interoperability across various unified communication platforms may pose a challenge for market growth.

Further key findings from the study suggest:

• On-premise unified communication accounted for more than 60 percent of the market in 2013.The forecast period will likely see the cloud-based or hosted product segment is expected to rapidly gain share, due to in large part to the high initial financial investment of installation, as well as additional maintenance cost associated with on-premise solutions.
• Enterprises emerged as the largest application segment in 2013 and are will most likely continue to dominate the market over the next six years. Small, medium, and large enterprises have been actively deploying the necessary IP infrastructure to support unified communication while the adoption of an effective communication system in the government sector supports operational continuity, emergency response, as well as situational awareness.
• North America accounted for more than 35 percent of the market in 2013; the regional market is characterized by the presence of several key players as well as high popularity of BYOD solutions. Europe and Asia Pacific are expected to be fast growing markets, due to the need for effective communication and collaboration, along with cost savings.
• Key industry participants include Cisco Systems, Avaya, NEC Corporation, IBM Corporation, Alcatel-Lucent, Microsoft Corporation, and Verizon Communications, among others. Major growth strategies employed by these companies include agreements, partnerships, and acquisitions in order to consolidate market share.

Competition is keen as key industry participants and major players in the global UC market are engaging in turf wars and trying to differentiate themselves in as many ways possible to decide leadership. And while the UC market does involve some real challenges, particularly in terms of investment and interoperability, as well as exposure to security risk, for those willing to face the obstacles head on, there can be a strong payoff.

The report “Unified Communication Market Analysis By Product (On Premise, Cloud-Bases/Hosted), By Application (Education, Enterprises, Government, Healthcare) And Segment Forecasts To 2020,” is available here.

To request a free sample of this report, click here.