Group Dynamics

Category: Videoconferencing

What It Is: Decades-old telecommunications medium that allows participants to see each other.

Key Players: Polycom, Tandberg, Sony, VCON, VTEL (user equipment); the first three control 88% of the market for group units; VCON and Polycom share roughly two-thirds of the desktop market.

Others: Infrastructure vendors (Radvision, Ridgeway, Polycom subsidiary Accord) are critical, as are resellers (Wire One, IVCi) and services companies (V-Span, Forgent, AT&T, MCI), many of which design and package systems.

Market Size: $713.4M* (2002)

What's Happening: Years of consolidation led to repeated shifts in market leadership. Now the switch from ISDN to IP, and the move to personal units, may change the game all over again.

* Source: Frost & Sullivan, April 2003; figure reflects Worldwide System revenue, expected to more than double by 2007, reaching $1.46B.