Unified Messaging Poised to Supplant Traditional Voice Mail This Decade

In-Stat: With equipment providers embracing Unified Messaging (UM) technology, UM and UM-capable seats will continue to grow while traditional voice mail systems will disappear from the market by the end of 2009. UM/UM-capable shipments will rise from 8.4 million seats in 2005 to 11.7 million seats in 2010, . UM is also beginning to grow beyond traditional voice mail, PC-based e-mail, and fax messaging. Interfaces associated with wireless Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), Blackberries, and mobile phones are beginning to garner consideration in UM. With the growing popularity of 802.11-based systems in the workplace, at home, and in public spaces, and the upcoming introduction of dual-mode WiFi/mobile phones, the need for compatibility with such devices will clearly intensify.

• Annual end-user revenues from UM/UM-capable equipment will rise from $506.4 million in 2005 to $628.6 million by 2010.

• While Avaya continues to hang on to the top position relative to the overall market, Nortel became the UM leader in 2005.

• New IP architectures put Microsoft and other large data players even more squarely in the middle of the communications picture.

Unified Messaging: It's Not Your Mother's Voice MailPubl 20060620