Expert sees VoIP solutions in communications market future

The future of the communications market has been discussed by an industry expert, and VoIP solutions are expected to play a large part.

Robert Messer, the founder and president of ABP International, told TMCnet.com that VoIP solutions and other IP-based telephony systems are slowly taking over.

"IP Telephony is gradually replacing digital phones, and open standards based IP-PBX systems are becoming the most popular solution in the SMB space," he told the website.

In terms of how the market will look in the future, he believes in five years that the currently vendor-heavy open source IP-PBX space will be consolidated, with just two or three out of the current 40-plus vendors surviving.

A warning to consumers was also issued about relying too much on Google and other search engines to look for vendors as "many people mistake information with knowledge, and information can take away a lot of value from the specialist and resellers."

"In the end, users will have to learn that if they need support and help, they should buy from [a] specialist."