Digital Lifescapes

The success of media tablets is raising questions about the e-reader market sustainability. E-readers still offer the best reading experience and appeal most to avid book readers, but a broader group of people prefer additional multimedia functionality -- such as web browsing, video and gaming. Media tablets are optimized to deliver a multifunction experience, and therefore, represent a stronger opportunity for consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers. As a result, In-Stat is forecasting that tablet shipments will outpace e-reader shipments by the end of 2011. "Of the two, the tablet market is the stronger and more sustainable opportunity," says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst at In-Stat . In fact, e-reader manufacturers will likely begin adding tablet-like features to some devices in their product line. Barnes & Noble already offers the Color Nook, which is often compared to a tablet, and Amazon, the leader in the e-reader space with its Kindle, will likely launch ...

Infonetics Research released the first of its biannual VoIP and Unified Communications (UC) services and subscribers reports, which now tracks SIP trunking, IP integrated access, and hosted UC in addition to residential VoIP, VoIP VPN/IP access, IP Centrex and managed IP PBX. Demand for residential and business VoIP services continues to grow through the economic downturn because of the cost savings they provide. As a result, in 2008 the VoIP services market had healthy growth of 33 percent to $30.8 billion. For the first 3 months of 2009, service providers experienced an average of 40 percent to 50 percent year-over-year growth for IP Centrex, indicating the demand for outsourcing and managed solutions remains healthy. "We expect hosted UC services to take off, with worldwide revenue doubling between 2009 and 2013, and we forecast SIP trunking service revenue to hit an 89 percent compound annual growth rate from 2008 to 2013," said Diane Myers, Infonetics Research analyst. H...

The struggling global economy will slow the growth of Voice over IP (VoIP), but deployments remain wide-ranging at mitigated levels, according to a new market study by In-Stat. Slightly more than one in three U.S. businesses that have deployed VoIP use it exclusively. Many more businesses use VoIP as a partial voice solution. American businesses are also beginning to embrace voice-enabled IM capabilities, particularly among younger workers. "IP continues to be a partial voice solution for most businesses with VoIP, particularly among larger businesses," says David Lemelin, In-Stat analyst. "Therefore, there is significant room for growth even among businesses that have already adopted it." The research, "2008 U.S. Business VoIP Overview: Stick to Fundamentals," covers the U.S. business market for VoIP. The report analyzes and provides detailed end-user survey data by size of business. In-Stat's market study found the following: - 32 percent of Enterpri...

According to Infonetics Research, the IP contact center (IPCC) market will finish 2008 up 37 percent over 2007, with many vendors reporting robust sales, particularly in Asia Pacific. The Infonetics' report shows sales of unified communications (UC) products will end mixed in 2008, with unified messaging platform sales up and communicator software sales flat. Because of the deterioration in economic activity worldwide, enterprise spending on telephony products is expected to slow in 2009, which will also pull down the overall UC and IPCC markets, although the IPCC and communicator segments will weather the economic downturn better than others. "The communicator market continues to be fluid, with growth not yet following established patterns and market share positions shifting one period to the next as PBX vendors battle each other and Microsoft," said Matthias Machowinski, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for enterprise voice and data. It's an exciting mark...

The communications industry buzz makes unified communications (UC) sound like it will cause seismic shifts across the business world, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. In the long run, some grand predictions may prove accurate because definitions of unified communications are so broad, with reports on uptake quoting big numbers, such as 50 percent of enterprises evaluating, installing, or running unified communications applications. However, apparently even the small baby steps of progress, such as a unified messaging installation or a web conferencing subscription, are being counted within those reports. "Real transformational changes will take more time, perhaps even a generation, to accomplish," says David Lemelin, In-Stat analyst. "But, it's possible that a new generation, dubbed Millennials, bringing to the workplace communications habits formed in their early years (text messaging, social networking, blogging, etc.), portends more rapid adoption....