Infonetics Research is out with its most recent report on the enterprise communications market, and a key takeaway is that Microsoft Lync seems to be going gangbusters, at least for Unified Communications (as opposed to PBX). An Infonetics press release quotes Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP, UC, and IMS:
"The demand for tools that aid employee productivity and flexibility is fueling growth in this [UC] segment, and Microsoft's Lync has been the primary beneficiary, enjoying over 40% sequential growth in the third quarter."
That helps give a little context to the piece that Brent Kelly wrote for us last week, about Microsoft hiking its prices for Client Access Licenses, along with increases on many server products as well. (The impact on Lync Server pricing was primarily at the SMB end, but it was big--a more than 400% hike for small businesses to adopt Lync Server.)
It's been pointed out that CAL licenses come into play in a big way once users want to have the same Microsoft client on multiple devices--i.e., your typical mobility scenario. That scenario is clearly becoming more common all the time, and if--as Infonetics suggests--UC's value is tied to employee productivity and flexibility, that's a perfect fit with mobility.
So if the CAL price increases don't erode demand, we could be looking at even stronger revenue growth for Lync going forward.
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Elsewhere in the Infonetics report, the research house notes that Cisco is holding onto its PBX/key system global market share lead over Avaya, with NEC and Siemens Enterprise following those 2.
Infonetics characterizes the market overall as going through a "tough year." Analyst Myers is quoted as saying, "Quarterly year-over-year declines continue as businesses push out spending [in cases] where existing telephony solutions still get the job done."
Infonetics also says PBX revenues are falling faster than unit shipments: "For the first time, the average revenue per PBX line slipped below $200."
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