How business was conducted changed dramatically in 2020 due to COVID-19, driving companies of all sizes to consider and adopt scalable, flexible, cloud-based digital technology solutions (e.g., Unified Communications as a Service or UCaaS) as part of their overall integrated UC&C solution. Vendors and service providers also saw exponential growth in the number of video and collaboration end users in 2020. In 2021 and beyond, IDC expects worldwide UC&C growth will be driven by companies across all business size segments (small, midsize, and large) with interest especially in video, collaboration, UCaaS, mobile applications, and digital transformation (DX) projects.
Some UC&C market specifics from this latest IDC report also show that hosted Voice/UC public cloud services (UCaaS) grew 26.1% year over year and 6.8% sequentially in 4Q20 to nearly $4.6 billion in revenue. For the full year 2020, public cloud UCaaS revenue increased 21.2% to $16.4 billion. UC Collaboration (including videoconferencing software and cloud services) increased 48.0% year over year and 5.1% sequentially to reach almost $6.2 billion in revenue in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, UC Collaboration revenue increased 45.0% to $22.1 billion.
IDC also reports that revenue for IP Phones declined 20.4% year over year but grew 20.3% sequentially in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, IP Phones revenue declined 22.8% to $1.9 billion. Shipments of IP Phones declined 23.1% year over year but increased 14.7% sequentially. For the full year 2020, shipments of IP Phones were down 22.2%.
Enterprise Videoconferencing Systems (i.e., videoconference room endpoints) surprisingly increased 26.1% year over year and 36.5% sequentially to more than $827 million in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, revenue increased 12.4% to almost $2.6 billion.
"In 2020, COVID-19 caused many businesses and organizations to re-think their plans for leveraging digital technologies and accelerated interest in and adoption of solutions such as team collaboration, team messaging, videoconferencing, and UCaaS, among other technologies," says Rich Costello, senior research analyst, Unified Communications and Collaboration at IDC. "In 2021, IDC expects positive growth numbers across these key UC&C segments to continue, albeit at slightly more modest rates."
From a regional perspective, the UC&C market saw positive numbers across the board in 4Q20 and for the full year 2020. In North America, UC&C revenue was up 3.1% quarter over quarter and 30.1% annually in 4Q20 to almost $6.3 billion. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 26.1% to $22.9 billion.
Asia/Pacific (including Japan) revenue was up 14.9% sequentially and 36.9% year over year to more than $2.4 billion in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 28.1% to almost $8.4 billion. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) revenue was up 9.5% quarter over quarter and 23.8% annually in 4Q20 to $4.0 billion. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 20.9% to $14.3 billion. And Latin America revenue increased 3.6% compared to 3Q20 and 27.3% year over year in 4Q20 to more than $441 million. For the full year 2020, revenue was up 27.6% to over $1.6 billion.
Microsoft's total worldwide UC&C revenue was $4.4 billion, up 3.5% sequentially and 41.9% year over year in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, Microsoft revenue was $16.1 billion, up 46.0%, representing a 34.2% share of the worldwide UC&C market. Cisco's total worldwide UC&C revenue in 4Q20 was nearly $1.3 billion, down 2.3% compared to 3Q20 and down 5.8% year over year. For the full year 2020, Cisco revenue was declined 4.6% to almost $5.0 billion, representing a 10.5% share of the worldwide UC&C market. Other important players in this space, such as Avaya, and RingCentral, also saw growth for the full year 2020.
Zoom Communications' total worldwide UC&C revenue increased 13.6% sequentially and a whopping 377.6% year over year to almost $863 million in 4Q20. For the full year 2020, Zoom's revenue grew 333.4% to $2.6 billion, representing a 5.5% share of the worldwide UC&C market.
Gaming PC and Monitors
Throughout 2020, the global pandemic created new opportunities for many consumer technologies and gaming PCs and monitors have arguably been among the greatest beneficiaries. As consumers spent more hours at home and fewer dollars outside, shipments of gaming PCs and monitors grew 26.8% year-over-year in 2020 to 55 million units. In a related report, IDC confirmed that, the growth rate and unit volume were the fastest and largest numbers recorded since IDC began tracking this market in 2016.
Aside from the sheer volume, 2020 brought other milestones that could alter future trends. North America and Western Europe combined overtook Asia/Pacific (including Japan) as the largest market for the first time, largely due to lockdown-induced demand. Gaming notebooks remained the biggest volume driver through a year marked by home restrictions. Despite being affected by display panel shortages through much of the year, gaming notebooks grew a record 26.9% in 2020 as consumers appreciated their versatility for both work and play. In parallel with PCs, gaming monitors also reached new heights in 2020, growing more than 77% compared to 2019 with shipments reaching 14.3 million units.
Looking ahead, IDC expects the gaming market to remain a bright spot after the overall PC market returns to more normal replacement cycles after the pandemic. While gaming desktops will continue to fade in favor of notebooks, their demise will be more than made up for by notebooks and monitors. For example, IDC expects gaming monitor volume will exceed that of gaming desktops for the first time in 2021. Even as gaming desktops increasingly fall out of favor, except for the DIY and hardcore gaming segments, growing monitor attach rates to gaming notebooks means the gaming monitor market is expected to see a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 10%. IDC expects this momentum to carry forward as global volumes reach 72.9 million in 2025 with a CAGR of 5.8%.
www.idc.com
