Infotech Lead India: Deepak Braganza, country manager – LifeSize India & South Asia, says verticals such as education, healthcare, among others, are driving the video conferencing market.
LifeSize, which reported a 4 percent dip in global revenue in Q3 FY 2013, is set to expand its channel presence in India. LifeSize’s India revenue and market share is not available. The company currently works with Ingram, Redington, Alcatel-Lucent, etc. in India. LifeSize has reported global revenue of around $108 million through channels in first nine months of FY 2013 against $111 million in the corresponding period previous year.
LifeSize India CEO says India is one of its major markets in the world.
In a recent study, Infonetics estimated that the worldwide videoconferencing market size will reach $5 billion by 2015.
LifeSize India CEO says the company’s product focus is assisting the company to increase market share. For instance, LifeSize offers 30-day free trials to enterprises to experiment its video conferencing solutions.
“We see several Indian SMB customers using our video conferencing tools. Our focus is to offer flexibility and scalability to users,” Braganza added.
LifeSize — which competes with Cisco, Polycom, etc. to gain market share — also offers its video conferencing as a service (IaaS) for $30 per month. This is primarily aimed at enterprises who are looking for one-time use.
LifeSize India CEO says its revenue and market share is growing in India at a time when India’s GDP growth is set to decrease to 5-6 percent this year. Business slowdown is contributing to LifeSize’s revenue growth in India as enterprises start cutting down on travel expenditure.
IDC — announcing the Q4 2012 video conferencing data — said regionally, Asia/Pacific outperformed the other worldwide regions and grew 10.4 percent year over year. Latin America was close behind with an 8.8 percent year-over-year growth rate in Q4. Conversely, Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) decreased 5.9 percent and North America decreased 22.9 percent year over year in Q4.
According to Infonetics, globally, enterprise video conferencing and telepresence revenue grew 10 percent sequentially in Q4 2012 to $822 million.
In 2012, endpoint shipments rose 47 percent, driven by the growth of PBX-based video. Revenue for nearly all dedicated videoconferencing systems declined in 2012, with some segments falling off significantly; only multipoint control units (MCUs) held steady.
Asia Pacific was the only region to notch positive revenue growth in 2012, up 11 percent over 2011. Cisco and Polycom continue to lead the dedicated videoconferencing equipment market.
Factors driving the future growth of enterprise video include advances in and proliferation of technology (e.g., high-definition video, bandwidth); demographic and communication trends; and specific use cases such as telelearning and telemedicine.
Though LifeSize’s on a growth path in India, its parent company Logitech International is undergoing restructuring and cost cutting initiatives.
Recently, Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell announced an organizational alignment to its new strategic priorities. These priorities include increasing focus on mobility products, improving profitability in PC-related products and enhancing global operational efficiencies.
Logitech International’s revenue for Q3 FY 2013 were $615 million million, down 14 percent from $715 million. Net loss of Logitech for Q3 FY 2013 was $195 million against net income of $55 million in Q3 FY 2012.
Meanwhile, Cisco India’s Director for Collaboration Sales Minhaj Zia says Cisco expects to grow faster or higher than market growth of video conferencing in India which is 20 percent. Cisco hopes to capture the market share of websites which are providing solutions for free and are used by many SMBs.
Cisco is planning to extend its reach to about 100 cities from present 10 cities and double channel partners to 200 in next two years.
The company is also in race for BSNL video conferencing project under which the telecom firm has plans to set up 200 video conference centres across country.
Baburajan K
editor@infotechlead.com
