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APAC telepresence revenue to reach $73M

Asia-Pacific telepresence market to grow 64.4 percent this year but will face competition from customized immersive offerings and high-definition video conferencing.
Written by Liau Yun Qing, Contributor

The telepresence market in Asia-Pacific is predicted to grow at 64.4 percent by the end of the year, reaching revenues of just over US$73 million, according to Frost & Sullivan.

In a report released Monday, the research firm said the region accounted for just over 15 percent of the global telepresence market last year, raking in revenues totaling US$44.4 million. The report covered 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan.

According to Frost & Sullivan's industry manager Pranabesh Nath, major vendors were quick to seize the opportunity during the economic downturn over the last two years to sell a large numbers of ready-built systems, with several players offering large discounts to close more sales.

However, in the next two years, telepresence will face stiff competition from more affordable mid-range high-definition (HD) video conferencing systems, as well as from customized immersive offerings provided by systems integrators at lower price points, Nath said in the report.

With this increasing competition, revenue growth for the telepresence market will decline sharply after 2010, dropping to 32.1 percent in 2011. In subsequent years, the growth rate will fall to "well below" 10 percent with no growth expected in 2015.

Frost & Sullivan noted that unit price for ready-built telepresence systems would decline by 2015.

Nevertheless, telepresence will significantly impact the visual collaboration market, said Nath. "We are already witnessing a blurring of boundaries between an immersive telepresence suite and conventional HD video system. This will only accelerate in the next one to two years," he said.

While vendors are now marketing telepresence systems as ready-built units, Nath predicted that a newer business model will appear and service providers will increasingly offer customized immersive systems as a managed service. This business model will show promising uptake as it eliminates the need for companies to invest in hardware and in-house maintenance skills, he added.

Among countries in the region, Australasia has the highest telepresence adoption rate. Last year, it accounted for 30 percent of the region's telepresence revenue to reach US$13.5 million.

Frost & Sullivan predicted that the region's telepresence market will grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 22.9 percent from 2009 to 2015, hitting a market size of US$110.1 million by the end of the period.

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