While cleaning out my inbox this morning, I came across this Google alert: Instat Forecasts Hosted VoIP Services Market of 1.27 Billion by 2009. A year ago, most forecasters were looking for about 1.6 billion by 2008. Will the market for hosted VoIP services take off? Or is this the beginning of a streak of missed forecasts?
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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The forecastings are usually misrepresentated as they don't take into account that many of the techno-savvy have dived into VoIP, while the majority of the market is made up of reluctant skeptics.
Make no mistake about it, VoIP will eventually replace traditional telephone services, but it will be a long road ahead. I'd say add five years onto their predictions. Maybe by 2014.
No doubt, Jonathan. What I found particularly interesting was the decline in Hosted VoIP revenue forecast. A year ago, the analysts were very bullish on the idea that you wouldn't own a PBX of your own anymore, but rather you would rent time on a central PBX –> a VoIP version of the old CENTREX model. Has that changed?