Editor's note: The following is excerpted from The Information Week "State of Unified Communications" report authored by Michael Finneran.
When comparing attitudes and adoption for various Cisco and Microft products, Information Week research found that Cisco has a commanding lead among surveyed Web conferencing users, with 60% reporting they use the company's WebEx; that's almost twice the rate of Citrix Go-ToMeeting (36%) and Microsoft's Live Meeting (33%).
Cisco also leads in room-based video teleconferencing, besting Polycom by a slim margin. Both are far ahead of Microsoft, unless you factor in the 15% of respondents who use Skype.
Microsoft did finish strong in newer communications modes, like desktop videoconferencing and IM; notably, a slightly higher percentage of respondents saw desktop video as more important than room systems. Among those using desktop conferencing, 46% use Microsoft, while 39% use Skype; 70% use one or both, making the company's total share of the desktop market nearly three times Cisco's 25%.
Microsoft's other top finish came with IM and chat, in use by 44% of IM users. Microsoft claims over 50 million Lync users though only 5 million use Lync for voice.
Finally, when we asked users to name their top UC providers, Cisco led with 83%, while Microsoft and Avaya tied for second with 47% (up to three responses were allowed).
Beyond the "big three," there were some surprises, like Alcatel-Lucent and Google each getting 16%, followed by ShoreTel with 11%, besting IBM's 8%.
It looks like Cisco is the big player for now, but that's based largely on its position with voice (see below); Microsoft is outmaneuvering Cisco in some fast-growing areas. The picture we're left with is a market in transition, with a well-entrenched supplier (Cisco) dominating the declining technologies while an up-and-comer (Microsoft) takes the lead with newer communications modes, and legacy suppliers that may slide into irrelevance if they don't make some bold moves.
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