Any talk of the PBX market dying or of even slowing down need to be taken with a heavy grain of salt. We do understand why some people might say the PBX market is down for the count. The market isn’t seeing growth quite as explosive as when the tech went mainstream a couple of years ago, but a recent Infonetics report on the market’s Q2 2012 results makes it very, very clear that the PBX market still has plenty of room to stretch its legs. We’ve been saying for a long time that the next 5-10 years of PBX is going to be really exciting, and this Infonetics report seems to validate those suspicions.

How Big of a Bump Are We Talking?

During Q2 2012 in North America Infonetics reports the PBX market rose up 5% over its Q1 2012 dealings and a big 6.4% from last year’s Q2 totals.

These numbers are significant, especially considering the fact we’re in the middle of an election year, and businesses tend to shy away from large infrastructure upgrades during the uncertainty of election years in order to keep plenty of cash on hand. Compounded with a continuously slow and dragging recovery from the Financial Crisis of 2008 and its corresponding recession we would take any amount of growth in the PBX market as a cause for celebration. The fact we’ve seen growth as substantial as we have this quarter is a very, very good sign that the PBX market will close out the year well ahead of 2011’s totals.

Did We See a Bump Worldwide?

Now, there is a potential spot of rain on this good news, and that’s the fact even though North American PBX sales were up in Q2 of this year, global PBX sales have decreased during the same period of time. The drop in global PBX sales is not nearly as dramatic as the increase in North American PBX sales, but it’s still worth considering for a moment.

In Q2 2012 global PBX sales dropped 2.6% from Q1 sales and rung up about 1.4% lower than they were at the same time last year. These aren’t monumental sales drops, but they are drops all the same and need to be taken seriously.

The Infonetics report suggests the global PBX market has primarily decreased because of a larger trend of businesses shying away from investing in any new telephony equipment. For this reason the drop in PBX purchasing in 2012 probably doesn’t have anything to do with demand for PBX technology itself, but everything to do with drops in the wider market of communications tech, of which PBX technology is a single part.

Despite noting this small dip in sales growth the Infonetics report remains optimistic regarding the potential for PBX growth over 2012 as a whole. A representative for Infonetics made it very clear “…we still expect 2012 to eke out some growth compared to 2011…” This representative stated that the main reason for lower than expected growth lies within European countries that feel their existing telephony solutions work well enough as is. These countries, many of whom are in the middle of accelerated debt and nation-wide economic problems, are consciously choosing to eschew the benefits of PBX technology due to their own financial instabilities.

The Future of the PBX Market- Still Bright?

As a whole, this Infonetics report on PBX market growth is very encouraging. As a whole the North American and global PBX markets are doing very well in 2012 despite facing the sorts of significant economic problems that often grind telephony technology upgrades to a halt. The fact that the PBX market is expected to grow AT ALL over the course of 2012 is proof of just how valuable, exciting and enticing this communications tech really is.