Q3 2006 was dominated by the heavyweights Avaya, Cisco, and Nortel. However, there were some interesting regional dynamics. In the U.S., Cisco's sales dipped in the face of strong increases by both Avaya and Nortel. In APAC, where Avaya experienced strong double-digit increases, Cisco had flat sales. Additionally, 3Com also experienced strong gains in APAC, while benefiting from the synergies of 3Com and H-3C. Also of interest, NEC, Toshiba, and ShoreTel moved into the top 5 rankings of several U.S. Enterprise IP Telephony segments.
"The competitive pressure in the Enterprise Telephony market is not easing up," said Ryan Olsen, Analyst at Synergy Research Group. "We saw some aggressive marketing in the quarter which resulted in successful gains for some vendors. On the other hand, this was not the best quarter to be a smaller vendor as some showed considerable strain from the competitive nature of the market."