Polycom Gains Significant Market Share in the Global Video Collaboration Market in Both Q1 and Q2 for Nearly 8 Percent Total Share Gain in 1H 2012

Multiple independent analyst firms report that more customers continue to choose Polycom over the competition for best ease of use, most interoperability and lowest total cost of ownership

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced significant, sequential quarter-over-quarter market share gains in the video collaboration industry, for the past two quarters, at the cost of some of its biggest competitors.

“The Forrester Wave™: Room-Based Videoconferencing, Q3 2012.”

New quarterly market share research reports from International Data Corporation (IDC), Synergy Research Group and Wainhouse Research show that Polycom gained between 4.4¹ and 5.7² percentage points in revenue market share quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2012. Polycom’s Q2 gains build on the Company’s market share gains of up to 2.2 percent in Q1 2012³, based on reports from all three firms. Overall, Polycom now holds more than 32 percent global market share at the end of the second quarter 2012, and gained nearly 8 percent global video collaboration market share in the first half of 2012, according to Wainhouse Research.⁴

Polycom’s momentum as the emerging global leader in video collaboration accelerated in Q2 2012:

• Wainhouse Research reported that Polycom gained 5.7 percent market share in the quarter, growing worldwide market share to 32.4 percent.⁵
• According to the latest Synergy Research Group report, Polycom gained 4.4 percent share in the quarter (now at 32.1 percent), and gained share in every product segment and in every geographic theater in Q2, including 13 percent in Central and Latin America, and 7 percent in North America.⁶
• In the new IDC report, Polycom gained 4.7 percent share in the quarter to reach 32.4 percent share.⁷

Analyst Firm	1Q12 Q/Q Market Share Growth	2Q12 Q/Q Market Share Growth	1^st Half 2012 Market Share Growth
Wainhouse	2.2%	5.7%	7.9%
Synergy	1.2%	4.4%	5.7%
IDC	0.7%	4.7%	5.4%

“Analysts recognize that Polycom is gaining share as the global market leader in video collaboration. We're the outright market leader in high growth markets, including China and India, and we’re winning because we provide the best ease of use, deepest integration, and lowest total cost of ownership in the industry,” said Polycom CEO Andy Miller. “This growth trend is market validation that organizations large and small are choosing Polycom video collaboration solutions to boost productivity, speed time to market, and cut costs across their environments. From mobile devices to the desktop to the conference room, we offer the broadest portfolio of solutions across the widest range of devices that leverage existing investments and use up to 50 percent less bandwidth. These continuing market share gains are proof that customers are embracing our unique approach over that of our competition.”

Analysts Highlight Execution, Breadth of Offerings, Partner Program as Contributors to Growth

"In spite of the economic challenges in Europe and IT spending cutbacks in some vertical market segments, Polycom's 2Q 2012 enterprise videoconferencing equipment revenue increased an impressive 8.9 percent quarter-over-quarter, resulting in Polycom growing its sequential market share by 4.7 percent to 32.4 percent,” said Rich Costello, Senior Research Analyst, IDC. “Good results from the Asia Pacific region in particular, as well as North America, for both Polycom solutions and infrastructure, fueled the growth numbers. A boost from the CALA region also added nicely to Polycom's quarterly results."

“In a highly competitive collaboration market, Polycom continues to stand out as a videoconferencing leader, gaining market share in all major regions in the second quarter and maintaining its number-one ranking in APAC. Even in the most challenging of economies, Polycom gained over 6 market share points in North America,” says Jeremy Duke, Founder and Chief Analyst, Synergy Research Group. “We believe Polycom continues to execute on delivering a wide breadth of high quality videoconferencing solutions as well as maximizing its market reach and growth with a successful partnership program.”

“Polycom continues to grow its global market share in a competitive video conferencing market, and was the only major vendor we saw who grew sequential revenue in Q2,” said Andrew W. Davis, Analyst and co-founder, Wainhouse Research. “In spite of many headwinds in the videoconferencing market this year, Polycom’s sustained market share gains indicate that Polycom’s strategy, with its emphasis on software and interoperability, is well aligned with the demands of enterprises around the world.”

Leading Analyst Firm Forrester Research Also Ranks Polycom as a Leader for ”Current Offerings” and “Strategy”

On Aug. 21, Forrester Research Inc. named Polycom a leader in video conferencing and top-ranked Company in both 'current offerings' and 'strategy' in its report “The Forrester Wave™: Room-Based Videoconferencing, Q3 2012.” The study used 39 criteria to evaluate the top vendors in the industry, looking at video collaboration solutions for every work environment – from mobile and desktops to room systems and immersive telepresence – along with the services that support them. Forrester found that Polycom earned the top scores in ‘current offerings’ based on Polycom’s top rankings in quality of experience, conferencing experience, management platform, recording and streaming, and security and compliance. In the ‘strategy’ category, Forrester named Polycom a leader largely because of its product roadmap and particular strengths in “UC integration” and “interoperability”—a key focus of and competitive advantage for Polycom, its open standards-based approach to interoperability, and its global ecosystem of over 7,000 partners. Polycom also was top ranked in the “partners” category.

Polycom® RealPresence® video solutions – which range from mobile apps and desktop software to group video systems and immersive theaters – are powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform. The RealPresence Platform – the most comprehensive and interoperable UC infrastructure for universal video collaboration – provides robust provisioning, management, scalability, reliability, flexibility, and security. Because of Polycom's focus on interoperability, the RealPresence Platform transforms islands of fragmented communications systems into a seamless culture of collaboration, with enterprise-grade video easily and securely accessible to all authorized personnel whether they’re mobile, remote, or on-site.

About Polycom

Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom^® RealPresence^® Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.com or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we’re pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward.

© 2012 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom logo, and the names and marks associated with Polycom’s products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

¹ Synergy Research Group, Q2 Worldwide Telepresence Market Share Report, August 17, 2012.

² Wainhouse Research, Spotcheck: Videoconferencing Q2 2012, August 29, 2012.

³ Wainhouse Research, Spotcheck: Videoconferencing Q1 2012, June 2012.

⁴ Wainhouse Research, Spotcheck: Videoconferencing Q2 2012, August 29, 2012.

⁵ Wainhouse Research, Spotcheck: Videoconferencing Q2 2012, August 29, 2012.

⁶ Synergy Research Group, Q2 Worldwide Telepresence Market Share Report, August 17, 2012.

⁷ International Data Corporation, Q2 2012 Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Videoconferencing and Telepresence Qview, August 24 2012.