Microsoft Now Accounts For 46% of Global UC&C Market, Microsoft’s Copilot Recall Is Here
The International Data Corporation (IDC) has found that Microsoft now accounts for 45.6 percent of the global unified communications and collaboration market.
In 2024, Microsoft solidified its market dominance, posting $31.5 billion in UC&C revenue, a 14 percent year-over-year increase. According to the IDC, this growth boosted Microsoft’s market share to almost 46 percent, which marks a 2.4 percentage point gain over 2023. This underscores its leading influence in enterprise collaboration and communication services.
The IDC also reported that the UC and collaboration market ended 2024 in good health, with global revenues having jumped eight percent year over year. According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Unified Communications and Collaboration Tracker, the UC&C space grew 7.8 percent year over year to $69.2 billion last year.
In other Microsoft news, it has announced that its ground-breaking, AI-powered Copilot feature, Recall, has finally launched after multiple delays.
Microsoft’s Recall feature is designed to capture near-continuous screenshots of user activity on Copilot Plus PCs. Recall could scroll through a user’s activity, encompassing their files, photos, emails and browsing history. Users could visit this searchable repository to retrace their steps, similar to how they can go back through their web browser history, to help them locate previously viewed or worked-on items.
It was initially scheduled to debut alongside the hardware in June last year. However, its rollout was postponed after security experts raised serious privacy and security concerns. Subsequently, a limited public test was planned for October, but Microsoft delayed it again, targeting November instead, to allow additional time to strengthen the feature’s security framework.
Cisco Partners with Splunk to Upgrade Security for the AI Era
As AI-enabled cyberattacks escalate in frequency and sophistication, Cisco is strengthening its cybersecurity posture through a series of strategic partnerships. These collaborations are designed to enhance the security capabilities of Cisco’s broader portfolio, particularly within its unified communications ecosystem, Webex.
Cisco is expanding its threat defence strategy by integrating agentic AI capabilities into its solutions, built in collaboration with partners and supported by open-source security frameworks. A key focus is the enhancement of Cisco XDR (Extended Detection and Response) and Splunk Security, both central to detecting and mitigating threats in real time.
Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, said:
The cybersecurity threat landscape has never been more dynamic and complex, with adversaries constantly emboldened and enabled by AI to drive new attacks and exploits.”
Cisco XDR aggregates and analyses telemetry across the enterprise, spanning endpoints, networks, cloud environments, email systems, and more. Leveraging the power of analytics and Cisco Talos threat intelligence helps security teams cut through the noise and respond swiftly to emerging attacks.
WhatsApp Teases Web Video & Voice Calls
WhatsApp is trialling video and voice calls for its web app, which would represent a major win for SME communications.
WhatsApp expert and blogger WABetaInfo has reported that the Meta-owned communications platform has added new call buttons to its web client. This means users will soon be able to access the same calling capabilities regardless of how they use WhatsApp, whereas it was previously limited to the mobile app or the PC or Mac app on desktop.
“While WhatsApp has primarily focused on developing new calling features for mobile and desktop apps in these years, it now appears to be directing its attention toward the web client,” WABetaInfo wrote. “Following the recent updates for WhatsApp Web beta, we discovered that WhatsApp is currently working on a new feature to bring voice and video calling to the web client!”
As illustrated by a screenshot shared by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is testing the addition of voice and video call icons directly within group chats on its web interface, notably icons previously exclusive to the mobile app. This underlines WhatsApp’s intended move toward more unified and accessible calling functionality across devices and conspicuously builds upon its momentum as an SME-friendly comms app.
BT Wholesale Launches Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile to Empower the Channel
BT Wholesale has announced its new Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile UCaaS solution to empower channel partners.
Teams Phone Mobile is designed specifically for the UK Wholesale channel and integrates Microsoft Teams’ enterprise-grade collaboration tools with EE’s mobile network. BT Wholesale stresses that this powerful combination ensures reliable, unified communications for today’s distributed workforce.
“Bringing Teams Phone Mobile into our portfolio makes sense for our partners and their customers, and demonstrates our commitment to being front and centre, driving innovation in the market,” said Thea Sztejka, Managing Director at BT Wholesale. “We see significant opportunities for channel partners to diversify and grow within the business communications market.”
With over 300 million monthly users globally, Microsoft Teams represents a ready-made market brimming with potential. By combining Microsoft Teams with the UK’s best mobile network, our partners can help empower customers to work anywhere, anytime, while strengthening their brand and driving ROI.”
As work increasingly occurs across hybrid and distributed environments, BT Wholesale outlines that Teams Phone Mobile aims to enable users to handle calls, messages, and collaboration tasks from a single interface across multiple devices.
