Two recent reports from industry analyst firms lend additional credence to the claim that managed, on-demand services like hosted VoIP are growing in popularity. More than that, these reports hint at both a generational shift and a broader sea change in the way customers expect services of all kinds to be delivered.

 

The first report, out earlier this month from JupiterResearch, “JupiterResearch Find Younger Consumers Driving Demand for Oline Payment Options,” sticks pretty closely to its title. JupiterResearch looked at the behavior of consumers under the age of 35, and found that they “are evolving very different payment and content consumption habits from adults over 35.”

 

These consumers, according to JupiterResearch, “are driving much of the usage of PayPal and debit cards for online purchases, product preferences which are helping to drive the marked differences in payment habits that exist between younger adults and baby boomers.”

 

While none of this is very surprising, it is still noteworthy since, as JupiterResearch points out, the young adults today are creating consumption trends that may very well dramatically alter how products are developed and marketed in the future. One very well could argue that a sea change is ahead not only for products, but for services as well.

 

An even more recent report from Infonetics (published May 22), “Carrier VoIP Equipment Revenue Down 8 Percent in 1Q07,” shows that this change is already occurring. Although revenues from carrier VoIP equipment grew 9 percent during the fourth quarter of 2006, as soon as the new year rolled around that trend nearly reversed itself; service provider next gen voice equipment revenue dropped 8 percent during the first quarter of 2007.

 

Infonetics blamed much of this drop on “ a significant drop in media gateway sales.” And why, you may ask, might demand for gateways be down? Its not as if the next gen voice market itself is on a downswing; quite the opposite: the market, Infonetics said, is up 14 percent year-over-year (1Q07). What’s more, 5-year outlook for the market is strong.

 

So again, why the falling demand for media gateways? Infonetics analyst Stéphane Téral noted a number of market activity trends during 1Q07, including solid softswitch deployments. Ah ha! Here’s another indication that the communications market, like many other service sectors, is shifting to a software, on-demand, online delivery model. When well-designed and with proper support, on-demand, software-based solutions like hosted VoIP offer some pretty compelling value propositions to customers.

 

These two reports bode well for hosted VoIP service providers. The way ahead is clear: it’s about flexibility, accessibility, manageability. Software-based solutions like hosted VoIP are one way to meet the needs of consumers, both today and in the future.

 

To learn more about hosted VoIP, please visit the Hosted VoIP channel on TMCnet.com.

 

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