How Conferencing Vendors are Remaining Relevant Amid Market Pressure 2015

DUBLIN, Apr. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --Research and Markets

(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/nrn29l/how_conferencing) has announced the addition of the "How Conferencing Vendors are Remaining Relevant amid Market Pressure" report to their offering.

The conferencing market is at a declining stage and is characterized by dipping price points and declining demand for stand-alone conferencing. There is a growing need for integrated solutions from the enterprise communication architecture and service standpoint. This study explores the growth opportunities available for conferencing vendors by analyzing a list of key mergers and acquisitions that took place in 2014. Further, it highlights the impact of these acquisitions on the UC product and service market in terms of customer demand, competition, and pricing.

While audio conferencing is the most essential service offering in the conferencing bundle, the demand for stand-alone audio conferencing is declining as enterprises prefer integrated solutions from their communication architecture and services. To cater to such unified solution requirements, vendors are increasingly looking to package complementary collaboration services, such as Web and video conferencing, Webcasts, team workspaces, and other unified communication (UC) applications, such as telephony, voice mail, instant messaging, and presence. Solution developers have the option of either developing the technology in-house or taking the acquisition/partnership route to offer such integrated solutions and tap adjacent opportunities. A notable number of vendors have recently opted for the latter as it enhances their ability to go-to-market at a much faster pace when compared to the lead time for platform development from scratch.

This study highlights a number of key acquisitions that took place in 2014 in light of providing users with tightly blended solutions. It aims to analyze the objective and the impact of these acquisitions on UC product and service markets with regard to factors such as customer demand, competition, and pricing.

In 2013, Cisco intended to promote the development of WebRTC using H.264 standards by making its implementation of the H.264 code publicly available, free of charge. The H.264 video codec is a widely adopted technology for video compression, recording, and the distribution of high-definition (HD) video and traditionally carries a significant royalty fee with it for developers. Cisco's strategy was that this move would help integrate browser-based video technology with video endpoints using existing H.264 media servers.

While the market did acknowledge this move, there was an inclination toward VP8 codec as it offers flexibility to the development community.

To stay in tune with the market trend toward VP8 and to strengthen its roots in WebRTC, Cisco acquired Assemblage in June 2014.

Assemblage offers simple click-to-call browser-based video conferencing with the help of application program interface (API) that talks to VP8 video codecs in browsers. Its flagship product, Kollaborate.io, helps users to conduct HD voice and video calls.

Companies Mentioned

- Assemblage
- Cisco

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