Western European VOIP phone shipments up 13% in Q4 2004

IDC showed healthy growth for the IP telephony market in Western Euрope in Q4 2004, with revenue increasing by over 13% compared to Q3 2004, reaching total revenue of $77.1 million. Q4 2004 saw a 14% rise in IP telephone shipments. Cisco was the vendor with the highest market share; its unit market share increased 1.5% in Q4 2004 while revenue market share increased by around 3.4%. Avaya was in second place and the company is clearly making inroads in the European IP telephony market. In terms of deployments, healthcare and local government were the vertical markets with the most activity in Q4 2004. SMB companies were also starting to discover the benefits that IP telephony can bring to them.