The economic cycle will play a major role in this market during the next four years. After expanding at double-digit annual rates since 2002, growth slowed to 4.8  percent in 2008 as the economy declined during the latter half of the year. We expect a steep recession to continue in 2009 that will lead enterprises to cut back on expenses. We project a 9.9 percent decrease in 2009 and a further 3.9 percent drop in 2010. We then expect this market to benefit from the upside of the economic cycle during 2011–12.

Source: 2009 ICT Market Review & Forecast

The economy will play a major role in this market. As the recession rolls on, businesses will continue to cut back on expenses that don’t directly result in cost benefits. And enterprise equipment is an easy target. But not all the news is bad, and real opportunity exists.

Generally speaking, products that provide direct cost savings and create opportunities for revenue growth will weather this storm well, while infrastructure investments that don’t immediately return savings on investment will be delayed until brighter economic days.

The long and short of it all is this: video conferencing equipment and Web conferencing services will see their products and services surge over the coming four years, while consumer telecommunications, services supporting equipment, and inter-networking equipment will decline precipitously.

Some of the most promising growth will occur in so-called Hosted IP services. This system targets small to mid-sized businesses and is gaining in popularity. The report projects hosted IP will rise by 5 million lines between now and 2012, a 35 percent compound annual increase.

Want to know more? Preview this section of the report.

• TIA 2009 ICT Market Review & Forecast:
  Hosted IP preview (359kb, pdf)

• Section I: Enterprise and Consumer Market Overview
  • Scope of the Enterprise Equipment Market and Chapter
  • General Trends
  • Consumer Equipment
  • Specialized Services
  • Enterprise Spending on Maintenance, Support and Technical
• Section II: The Voice-centric Market
  • Enterprise Telephone Equipment and Services
  • Conferencing
  • Contact Centers
• Section III: The Data-centric Market
  • Ethernet
  • Data Communications Services
• Section IV:
  • Corded Phones
  • Cordless Phones
  • Answering Machines
  • Home Fax Machines

The hosted IP Installed base is expected to rise to 5 million lines by 2012, a 35.1 percent compound annual increase.