12/16/2008 -- Cisco Systems Inc. has long been a comer in the enterprise telephony segment. And thanks to ceaseless innovation on the telephony front -- including an aggressive push into unified communications (UC) -- Cisco recently grabbed the lead in that market segment for the first time ever.

Paradoxically, the enterprise telephony market flourished in the midst of economic tumult. According to market watcher Infonetics Research, enterprise telephony revenues grew by 8 percent in Q3 of this year, led by surging sales of pure IP PBX and hybrid PBX gear. (Revenues for DTM PBX equipment, on the other hand, were down.) But while things looked great in Q3, Infonetics doesn't expect the telephony market to completely weather the economic storm.

-- advertisement (story continued below) --

"The enterprise telephony market more than likely will get squeezed during the recession, particularly in 2009, because one of the prime drivers of PBX sales is the creation of new businesses and the expansion of existing businesses, which are hampered during downturns," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst for enterprise voice and data at Infonetics Research, in a statement. "There are a few bright spots, though, like the pure IP PBX segment, which is benefiting from new product launches, and IP softphones, of which we've seen a tremendous uptake in recent quarters, and which should weather the economic storm fairly well, with continued annual growth expected."

Cisco had a monster Q3, growing its revenues by almost 20 percent. That catapulted it into the market lead, ahead of traditional market powers Avaya and Nortel, which finished second and third, respectively, in Infonetics' tally. Cisco was the only vendor that realized significant market share gains in 2008, according to Infonetics; its competitors either held their own or lost ground.

Elsewhere, Infonetics reports, quarterly shipments of IP phone were up 25 percent (or one quarter) on a year-over-year basis, while shipments of IP softphones more than doubled between the second and third quarters of 2008. --Stephen Swoyer