Juniper Research forecasts, in a new report, that improved technology, more intuitive user interfaces and increased awareness will drive the adoption of mobile VoIP, and that clients downloaded to smartphones will account for 512 million of the anticipated 640 million mVoIP users by the end of 2016.

Still, Juniper said, few alliances will form between mVoIP specialists and carriers, although mVoIP providers are likely to continue to expand their social media and gaming plays. Juniper points to Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) just approved acquisition of Skype and Facebook's continued exploration of the VoIP segment as likely catalysts that will accelerate the trend.

Mobile video calling also will continue to accelerate, Juniper said, and it likely will reach 130 million users by 2016. Again, technology improvements are likely to spur adoption, especially in developed markets like North America and Europe.

For more:
- see this IntoMobile article
- see the full report

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Kennedy

A decade ago, IP networks provided access from fixed locations to mail systems and static information sources. Today IP networks provide access to a wide range of personalized, socially-inclusive, media-rich apps. The role of the IP router necessarily must expand to meet these changing network needs. FierceTelecom contributor Michael Kennedy from ACG Research shares his take. Industry Voices

VoIP is spreading from the fixed-line world to the mobile world. Usage is on the rise creating significant opportunity for mobile VoIP gateway equipment suppliers as expenditures in this space are expected to soar beyond the $6 billion mark in 2015, says In-Stat.

The total service provider VoIP equipment market, including trunk media gateways, SBCs, media servers, softswitches, and voice application servers, decreased 9% from 2Q10 to 3Q10, to $511 million, according to Infonetics Research. While revenue is down for the quarter, shipments for almost all segments in the market are up sequentially.

Dell'Oro Group reported that the Unified Communications market expanded to its highest level since 2008 in the third quarter this year. Strong second half seasonality helped offset weakness in Europe as the Unified Communications market expanded 7 percent sequentially.

Traffic upswing in the mobile VoIP sector in China is expected to exceed 100 percent annually till 2014, according to Research and Markets’ recently released "China Sourcing Report: VoIP Products 2010" report.

Okay, so we beat the economic downturn and now it looks like we are actually coming out even stronger. According to ABI Research, the VoIP horizon looks even sunnier.

The VoIP market, which includes SIP trunking, IP-PBX/IP Centrex and managed VoIP services, is set to be a $20 billion industry by 2015. Companies will be replacing their old legacy systems and apparently they are doing it increasingly with hosted VoIP services. Even larger enterprises seem to be getting into the hosted VoIP action. Enterprises are now seriously debating the costs and benefits of owning their telephony or having someone else host it.

“The trend of companies outsourcing their communications infrastructure has taken off in earnest, as enterprise decision-makers look for cost savings without having to compromise on features and functionality,” comments senior analyst Subha Rama in a release. "Among VoIP access technologies, SIP trunking, with its promise of trunk consolidation, centralized management and administration, and application federation across enterprises, has seen considerable growth in terms of installed base and revenues in the last 12--18 months.”

For more:
- read the release

Related news:
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The latest figures released by analyst firm MZA have shown that the Corded PBX market (excluding Micro PBX products) increased by 16% in Q2 2010 compared to Q2 2009 at a global level. Avaya continued to lead the world PBX market, growing market share from 13% in Q1 2010 to 15% in Q2 2010.

According to the recent report "The Future of Consumer VoIP" by Research and Markets, it is important to distinguish between a profitable business that successfully sells VoIP services and a profitable VoIP business. The report shows that the most profitable over-the-top VoIP providers are those that quickly leveraged their success into building their own networks.

There are over 100 service providers offering business VoIP services in EMEA and new ones being added every quarter, according to “EMEA Business VoIP Services Leadership Matri,” a new report recently released by Infonetics Research.

Juniper Research just released a study that claims by 2012 there will be 100 million mobile VoIP users. At that time, FierceVoIP and FierceWireless will probably have to merge if these predictions become true.

The study reports that mobile VoIP will grow faster in developed markets because of the correlation between next-gen wireless network rollouts and the uptake of mobile VoIP. Mobile VoIP traffic might be higher in developing countries at some point, but developed markets will lead the charge. Revenue from standard voice rates will continue to diminish just like they did for wired telephony services.

An interesting note from Juniper is that they believe a large majority of the calls will be made over WiFi, bypassing carriers and carrier charges resulting in a loss of revenues up to $5 billion by 2015. As I've said in the past, I think the carriers will figure out a way to charge us for this stuff, so don't worry.

For more:
- read the article

Related Reports:
VoIP to see 79% penetration in 3 years
Government is big business for VoIP
VoIP growth to focus on optimization

Synergy Research Group released their newest report „Carrier VoIP Q4 2009 and YE 2009 market shares” that shows that the worldwide market for Carrier VoIP totaled just over $10 billion for the full year 2009.

Year over year, the market fell 18 percent; significantly less than drops measured in other Telecom and IT equipment markets.

VoIP penetration among US businesses will increase rapidly over the next few years, reaching 79% by 2013, compared to 42% at the end of 2009, reports In-Stat. This penetration reflects companies having a VoIP solution deployed in at least one location.

According to the recent Canalys report on IP telephony, investment in enterprise telephony remained restricted in EMEA in Q3 2009, with call control line shipments down 17.5% compared with the same period in 2008.

The research shows volume declined 21.5% in Q1, while Q2 was down 18.6%. In total, 4.8 million lines were shipped in the quarter, a 4.4% sequential increase. IP line penetration increased to 40%, up from 35% one year earlier, as businesses continued to replace aging TDM infrastructure and expand trial projects.

Infonetics Research released its biannual VoIP and UC Services and Subscribers report, which tracks business and residential/SOHO voice over IP services and includes a North America Business VoIP Services Leadership Matrix that analyzes and ranks the top service providers in the VoIP business services market.

The report shows that demand for residential and business VoIP services continues to grow even as spending in other communication areas tightens. For the first half of 2009, the worldwide VoIP services market grew to $20.7 billion. Residential VoIP services remain healthy, comprising the majority of worldwide VoIP services revenue, and subscribers are up 14% from the end of 2008.

Infonetics Research released results from its IMS Plans: Global Service Provider Survey. It shows that 80% of Infonetics’ service provider respondents run fixed voice over IMS today or will by 2011 and that more than half of the service provider respondents plan to deploy video telephony and converged mobile/fixed-line services over the next 12–18 months.

There could be 94 million people using VoIP hardware over mobile broadband connections across Europe by 2017, according to new research.
Figures from the Coda Research Consultancy suggest the uptake of mobile broadband will continue to expand significantly. This could potentially change business practices as more people have the option of working from home rather than heading into the office.

Global economic problems will cause a slowdown in spending in the IP contact center (IPCC) market in 2009, according to Infonetics Research.
The communications market research firm reports that while the overall Unified Communications and IPCC markets will experience a downturn, the IPCC and communicator segments will weather the economic downturn better than others.