Tag: nortel

  • MZA: Avaya Continues to Lead PBX Market

    The latest figures released by analyst firm MZA have shown that the Corded PBX market (excluding Micro PBX products) increased by 16% in Q2 2010 compared to Q2 2009 at a global level.

    According to MZA, these results show mixed fortunes depending on the sales region and point towards a turbulent road to recovery with fragile growth rates.

    The report finds that Western Europe, for example, which represented more than one-quarter of the overall global market, showed only weak levels of growth as volumes here increased by a meagre one percent in comparison to Q1 2010.

    One of the major contributing factors to this was the result for the UK market, ordinarily the second largest in the region, which declined in Q2 2010 by 5% compared to Q1 2010. However, in a reversal of fortunes, Germany demonstrated growth of 8% in Q2 2010 compared to Q1 2010 after it previously had dropped by 12% sequentially. According to analysts, both of these results illustrate the extremely volatile nature of the recovery in Western Europe.

    North America, on the other hand, posted an encouraging set of results this quarter, both in comparison to the same quarter of last year (up by 18%) and sequentially (up by 13%), although this still leaves the market adrift of its 2008 average quarterly run-rate of over three million extensions.

    Research by MZA shows that one of the biggest increases globally was recorded in Eastern Europe, where volumes have started to pick up following some of the toughest trading conditions. In Q2 2010, the market increased by 35% compared to Q2 2009. Much of the increase was driven here by Russia, where volumes are normalising but still have a long way to go.

    The second largest growth rate was registered in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan), where an increase of 19% in Q2 2010 was recorded over Q2 2009.

    Avaya continued to lead the world PBX market, growing market share from 13% in Q1 2010 to 15% in Q2 2010. Its leadership position was first attained as a result of the acquisition of Nortel.

    Cisco was in second position with a stable 12% market share while Panasonic moved from fourth position in the last quarter to third position in this, maintaining its 11% share. Panasonic continued to lead in the Below 100 Extensions sector with a steady 16% market share, ahead of NEC in second position and Avaya in third position. In the Above 100 Extensions market, Cisco was the market leader with a 24% market share, followed by Avaya.

    World IP Extensions Market

    The raport also finds that the IP extensions market grew by 27% compared to Q2 2009, which was greater than the 16% rise seen in the total extensions market. The Below 100 IP Extensions market grew by 33%, while the Above 100 IP Extensions market increased by 25%.

    In both instances, increases in the IP extensions market far outweighed the growth seen in the total market and also the growth in the Below 100 Extensions market continued to outpace the growth seen in the Above 100 Extensions market as the adoption of IP to the desktop becomes more widespread.

    Cisco maintained its leadership of the IP extensions market with a 33% market share, followed by Avaya at 21% and NEC with 10% market share.

  • Nortel Patent Auction Benefits LTE Market

    The decision by Nortel to sell its Long Term Evolution (LTE) patent portfolio could serve as a launch pad for companies planning to cash in on a market expected to undergo explosive growth in the coming years, according to iSuppli.

    iSuppli forecasts that LTE subscribers will reach 274.4 million by 2014, managing a whopping CAGR of 276.9 percent, up from just 1.4 million subscribers in 2010 and virtually no subscribers in 2009.

    “With Nortel’s decision to open its LTE patent portfolio to bidders, the market for LTE just became a lot more interesting. The acquisition of Nortel’s Intellectual Property (IP) could represent a coup for any company, as it could significantly reduce time to market, development costs and royalty exposure. It also potentially could yield a new serious competitor in the market, depending on who acquires the IP,” said Francis Sideco, iSuppli analyst.

    Currently, among the major suppliers in the chipset landscape for LTE, only Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson are known to have sampled LTE chipsets. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics and LG are known to be working on solutions for their captive handset businesses.

    Who could benefit?

    “Proven experience with licensing and royalties in 3G shows that having a strong IP position is essential to any company wishing to compete effectively and profitably in the wireless wide area networking market. This is true regardless of whether a company is an equipment manufacturer, a chipset supplier or even a mobile network operator,” said Sideco.

    According to him, with Nortel holding more than 4,000 patents in its portfolio, including those that are essential to the LTE standard, acquiring this IP might be a launch pad for companies that could be planning to get into the LTE market, expanding their portfolio or reducing royalty exposure on future products.

    iSuppli believes a number of companies could benefit from acquiring Nortel’s IP—whether or not they are actually bidding on the holdings. Broadcom, Intel, Infineon Technologies, Huawei, LG and Samsung are just a few companies that might be interested in the technology.

    The research group also believes that Nortel at present is testing the waters to gauge if there is enough interest going around in the market for a buyer to snap up the company’s patents, or whether Nortel could achieve greater revenues by turning its portfolio into a licensing business.

    “The real question here is whether interest in the auction exists—and if Nortel will be able to get as much as, or even more than, it obtained in 2009 for its CDMA patents, which yielded $1.1 billion,” concluded Sideco.

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