The worldwide Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) market grew 29.2% year over year and 7.1% quarter over quarter to $13.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20) , according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Unified Communications & Collaboration QView. Revenue growth was also up an impressive 24.9% for the full year 2020 to $47.2 billion.
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How business was conducted changed dramatically in 2020 due to COVID-19, driving companies of all sizes to consider and adopt scalable, flexible, cloud-based digital technology solutions (e.g., Unified Communications as a Service or UCaaS) as part of their overall integrated UC&C solution.
Vendors and service providers also saw exponential growth in the number of video and collaboration end users in 2020. In 2021 and beyond, IDC expects worldwide UC&C growth will be driven by customers across all business size segments (small, midsize, and large) with interest especially in video, collaboration, UCaaS, mobile applications, and digital transformation (DX) projects.
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Worldwide Unified Communications & Collaboration (UC&C) revenues grew 29.2% year over year to $13.1 billion in Q4 2020, according to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Unified Communications & Collaboration QView.
Some UC&C market specifics include the following:
- Hosted Voice/UC Public Cloud (UCaaS) grew 26.1% year over year and 6.8% sequentially in 4Q20 to nearly $4.6 billion in revenue. For the full year 2020, public cloud UCaaS revenue increased 21.2% to $16.4 billion.
- UC Collaboration (including video conferencing software and cloud services) increased 48.0% year over year and 5.1% sequentially to reach almost $6.2 billion in revenue in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, UC Collaboration revenue increased 45.0% to $22.1 billion.
- Revenue for IP Phones declined 20.4% year over year but grew 20.3% sequentially in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, IP Phones revenue declined 22.8% to $1.9 billion. Shipments of IP Phones declined 23.1% year over year but increased 14.7% sequentially. For the full year 2020, shipments of IP Phones were down 22.2%.
- Enterprise Videoconferencing Systems (i.e., videoconference room endpoints) surprisingly increased 26.1% year over year and 36.5% sequentially to more than $827 million in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, revenue increased 12.4% to almost $2.6 billion.
“In 2020, COVID-19 caused many businesses and organizations to re-think their plans for leveraging digital technologies and accelerated interest in and adoption of solutions such as team collaboration, team messaging, videoconferencing, and UCaaS, among other technologies,” said Rich Costello, senior research analyst, Unified Communications and Collaboration at IDC. “In 2021, IDC expects positive growth numbers across these key UC&C segments to continue, albeit at slightly more modest rates.”
From a regional perspective, the UC&C market saw positive numbers across the board in 4Q20 and for the full year 2020.
- In North America, UC&C revenue was up 3.1% quarter over quarter and 30.1% annually in 4Q20 to almost $6.3 billion. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 26.1% to $22.9 billion.
- Asia/Pacific (including Japan) revenue was up 14.9% sequentially and 36.9% year over year to more than $2.4 billion in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 28.1% to almost $8.4 billion.
- Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) revenue was up 9.5% quarter over quarter and 23.8% annually in 4Q20 to $4.0 billion. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 20.9% to $14.3 billion.
- Latin America revenue increased 3.6% compared to 3Q20 and 27.3% year over year in 4Q20 to more than $441 million. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 27.6% to over $1.6 billion.
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