Description

The global professional headset market earned revenues of $1.41 billion in 2019, a 3.8 percent growth when compared to 2018.

Almost all major professional headset vendors reported healthy growth rates in 2019 except for Poly which faced some internal restructuring difficulties that resulted in the company earning lower-than-expected revenues. Despite a challenging 2019, during the past six to nine months, the market leader has been working hard to resolve its outstanding issues with strong signs of recovery toward a growth track in 2020.

Year 2019 was also marked by unprecedented innovation in the professional headset realm, with several product launches in almost all headset categories including models featuring advanced active noise cancelling technologies, improved connectivity, improved form factors, and a growing array of built-in features and capabilities.

In 2019 professional PC USB and UCC headset sales grew by 14.3 percent, reaching $969.4 million in revenue and representing 68.8 percent of total professional headset revenue.

Growth of professional PC USB and UCC headsets was mainly driven by continued growth in the software communications and collaboration market and the increased sales of both advanced Bluetooth UCC headsets and corded UCC headsets.

In 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and new WFH realities have set unprecedented levels of demand for both cloud software communications and collaboration services and professional headsets across the world.

During the first half of 2020, all major professional headset vendors have taken concrete actions to enhance safety measures at their corresponding facilities, while also ensuring a certain degree of continuity in the supply chain of headsets, given the vital role of these devices for PC communications and collaboration.

In order to keep up with the unprecedented levels of professional headset demand and to remedy the challenges caused by COVID-19 disruptions, leading headset vendors have been diligently working, around the clock, to resolve headset supply problems.

Some of the actions taken by leading professional headset vendors during COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate disruption in the supply chain and help in the provisioning of headsets to WFH individuals include: reconfiguring manufacturing sites and implementing specific safety protocols; working diligently with key suppliers and contract manufacturers to expand production capacity to fulfill backlogs as quickly as possible; prioritizing orders placed by first responders, governments, and healthcare organizations; following World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) directions to safeguard employee health and safety; and strengthening general relationships with channel partners and IT service providers.

As part of this analysis, Frost & Sullivan has identified market drivers, restraints, competitive trends, and growth opportunities in the global professional headset market.

Through extensive primary and secondary research, this analysis provides enterprise communications providers and manufacturers with an in-depth perspective on the dynamics of a changing market. Frost & Sullivan expects that this analysis will provide vendors with valuable insights to accelerate their growth and expand their penetration opportunities within the headset marketplace.

Author: Alaa Saayed