News
IDC Paints Bright Picture for Unified Messaging Apps
- By Scott Bekker
- February 20, 2001
A recent report by analyst firm
IDC
says the unified messaging application market is poised for significant growth
over the next couple of years.
The report, entitled “Turning the Corner: Unified Messaging
Applications Market Forecast and Analysis, 2000-2004,” says the number of UM
mailboxes will increase from one million in 1999 to more than 38 million in
2004. Overall, IDC reports the market will nearly reach the $2 billion mark.
According to the report, the success of hosted UM
applications, along with the growth of IP-based PBXs, have begun to fuel
worldwide UM spending. A number of service providers have also jumped into the
UM arena, contributing to its growth.
In the near term, IDC expects the demand for enterprise UM
applications to outpace the demand for hosted UM applications. However, by
2004, IDC predicts the hosted UM application market will surpass the
enterprises UM application market at the leading segment.
While the U.S. is expected to remain the dominant market for
UM mailboxes, IDC says the EMEA and Asia/Pacific markets will also be major
players in the market. – Jim Martin
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.