Unified Messaging Market Climbs 21% YOY

According to a new study by Infonetics, the worldwide unified communications and IP contact center business climbed 21% last year to $363-million, and expected to see double-digit growth over the next four years.

Of the total unified communications market, unified messaging makes up the bulk of it. Avaya (AV) is the leading player but but the study suggests that rivals such as Nortel (NT), Cisco (CSCO) and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) are gaining market share.

In summarizing the market, Mattias Machowinski, directing analyst with Infonetics, said:

Unified communications is the buzz du jour in our industry, but there are a lot of different ideas out there for what it actually is. What everyone seems to agree on, though, is that there are 2 key components that form the cornerstone of UC: unified messaging, which stores all message types, and communicator, a presence-enabled directory that shows contact availability by communication mode.

A true UC user will have both, and in fact they are the top 2 applications being deployed by IP PBX adopters. The unified messaging market is already quite large, but communicator is in its infancy.