VOWLAN Gets a Kickstart
Unstrung Insider claims high-profile partnerships will boost wireless VOIP market and drive enterprise FMC
August 15, 2005
The slew of recent big-name partnerships in the wireless VOIP space is set to provide a timely boost to the immature voice-over-WLAN (VOWLAN) market and drive demand for enterprise fixed/mobile convergence, according to the latest Unstrung Insider.
The report -- Wireless VOIP: The Path to Enterprise Fixed/Mobile Convergence -- notes just how small the VOWLAN market is today. Report author Gabriel Brown describes it as “miniscule,” with total annual handset sales from the likes of Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and SpectraLink Corp. of only $50 million to $100 million.
“VOWLAN is all about potential at this stage," he says. "Relatively speaking, very few handset units are shipping outside of verticals such as healthcare and warehouse-type businesses.”
Despite this slow start, Brown claims that the market is poised for action. Brown points to a number of high-level partnerships among handset, IP telephony, and WLAN infrastructure vendors that, he argues, are likely to ignite the market for wireless VOIP and pave the way for convergence.
Specifically, Brown cites efforts by Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) to develop dualmode phones, running VOIP client software from Avaya Inc. (NYSE: AV). (See Motorola Plots WLAN VOIP Move and Avaya, Nokia Team on FMC.) Elsewhere, a series of alliances between IP PBX vendors and wireless LAN vendors is pushing the pace of the technical integration required to make wireless VOIP implementations easier and faster to deploy. Examples include partnerships between Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA) and Aruba Wireless Networks; and Trapeze Networks Inc. teaming up with Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT) and 3Com Corp. (Nasdaq: COMS). (See Aruba Allies With Alcatel , Trapeze Swings With Nortel, and 3Com Swings With Trapeze.)