The unified communications (UC) market slowing down after triple-digit growth in some areas over the past year.
Beancounters at Context said that with European distribution of products up by 76 percent so far this year, compared to 2020.
But that growth will slow over the course of the rest of this year, particularly when compared directly to some of the coronaviruses fuelled spending in the second lockdown period in 2020.
UC technology covers a lot of products that would be required buying during the lockdown including collaboration headsets, cameras, speakers, microphones, room systems, hubs, IP phones and display systems.
Generally, the sales of those products have continued to hold firm. Students at many higher education facilities have also been forced to study from home and have had to invest in technology to support it. As a result, unit sales so far this year have been 111 percent above 2019 levels, and revenues are up by 103 percent compared to that pre-pandemic year.
Unit sales in the first quarter of 2021 grew 74 percent year on year (YoY), coming in at 5.4 million, while in the first two months of the second quarter, that figure stood at 75 percent YoY and 2.5 million units.
The chances are that the growth levels will come down and hit more modest levels as life starts to get more normal.
Context research and business development manage, Sam Naman, said that vendors told him that demand is tailing off, especially for headsets and cameras, while backorders are being fulfilled. This may suggest that the UC market is returning to more ‘normal’ levels in the near future.
“However, this very much depends on the circumstances in each country across the region. This includes how quickly lockdowns are eased and workers are encouraged back to the office, as well as whether there are any government schemes to spur IT purchases, as in the UK”, he added.
