What does 2H 2009 hold for IP communications?

[1]As the second quarter closed Tuesday, I began thinking about what the second half of the year might hold for companies in the IP communications space.

The publicly traded companies won't begin releasing second quarter results for at least six weeks, so it will be tough to come by hard numbers until then to gauge if the market has reached a bottom and spending is beginning an upward trend. Most analyst reports I've seen so far continue to indicate flat growth or slight declines in revenue as companies put off upgrades to their communications systems or cut back on premium features.

Though looking at the picture in aggregate is a little gloomy, there do remain sectors like IMS, HD Voice, unified communications hold promise [2] to drive revenues.

Also, though neither company is a big fan of one another, VoIP device makers magicJack [3] and ooma [4] both told me they've seen strong sales momentum so far this year and have growth plans in place to scale their businesses. On the other side of the consumer-facing VoIP coin, Vonage is doggedly trying [5] to reduce churn and acquire customers without shelling out so much in marketing expenses, but we won't know until early August how its efforts are progressing. 8x8 posted strong results [6] for its fiscal quarter ended March 31,  2009, especially in its business group, so perhaps it will continue to contribute good news for the sector in the second half.

Hosted services, especially those aimed at the SMB market, have also gotten paid a fair amount of lip service lately, as company reps have told me they've seen a jump in the number of start-up ventures seeking high-quality communications services without the upfront costs of a premise-based deployment.

Nortel's breakup [7] also could cause big waves [8] in the space, with the eventual buyer of Nortel's VoIP-related units getting significant market share, along with the challenge of integrating product roadmaps and technology. One source told me a deal for Nortel's Enterprise Solutions division would be announced within 48 hours. But that was more than a week ago, and there still has been no announcement regarding a sale, so we'll wait and see if some fireworks happen over the weekend or next week.

What are you seeing on the ground in regards to the outlook for the second half of 2009? Will it hold more disappointing, sluggish sales? Or will some companies find the right messaging and price points to drive uptake of new equipment and services?

Let me know via email or tweet, and, if you're a stateside FierceVoIP reader, we hope you have a fantastic 4^th of July weekend! 

- Pete [9]
@fiercevoip [10]