Citing MZA statistics for pure IP handset shipments in the UK in the second quarter of this year, the sources claimed an increase in market share to 14%, putting them in joint third place after Mitel and Cisco. A little over a year before, the Munich company could only claim 5% and fourth place behind the afore-mentioned competitors, but a pair of multi-thousand handset deals made all the difference this time around.
The first was with IBM in Cosham, for some 15,000 Siemens IP handsets which were ordered for a Siemens 8000 installation, and the second was with an NHS Trust in Newcastle which has bought a “significant number” of handsets. “That’s not all”, the sources claimed. “We are closing more deals as we speak with very well known global companies, and we are beating the IP telephony market leader to do so”.
Could this be a sign that the German company is pulling out from under the pall of lacklustre results and uncertainty about its future? We hope so, as industry observers consider the Hi-Path 8000 and its smaller siblings to be some of the better bits of kit on the market right now. When paired with the Open Scape suite of Unified Communications applications, these IP PABX’s are making customers large and small sit up and take notice.