Infonetics Research released excerpts from its 2nd quarter 2012 Service Provider VoIP and IMS Equipment and Subscribers market share and forecast report. (Detailed analysis published August 29.)

ANALYST NOTE

“The year kicked off with a big bang thanks to record LTE-related shipments in the first quarter, but there was no way the carrier VoIP and IMS equipment market could repeat that growth consecutively. There was nowhere to go but down, which is exactly where it went in the second quarter,” notes Diane Myers, principal analyst for VoIP and IMS at Infonetics Research.

Myers adds: “Looking forward, carrier investments in IMS core equipment, session border controllers and voice application servers should finally outweigh the continued losses in legacy equipment (trunk media gateways and softswitches) enough for us to expect 2012 to be the first ‘up’ year for the overall carrier VoIP equipment market since 2007. The fundamental market drivers are intact and we continue to see growth in VoIP and IMS subscribers, and demand for SIP trunking, hosted business services, and over the longer term, VoLTE.”

SERVICE PROVIDER VOIP AND IMS MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

• The global carrier VoIP and IMS market dropped 11% in 2Q12 from the previous quarter, to $658 million
• Huawei’s gains in the quarter allowed it to take back the lead in the global VoIP and IMS market in 2Q12 from GENBAND and Alcatel-Lucent
• Fluctuations in overall vendor leadership are expected to continue as incumbent and wireless operators place big equipment orders sporadically
• VoIP and IMS spending in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) is up both sequentially and from the year-ago 2nd quarter as investments continue across the region
• Brazil, Mexico and other countries led the Latin American region to a 47% surge in VoIP and IMS equipment spending since the same quarter last year
• Offsetting the gains in EMEA and Latin America were losses in both North America and Asia