Plantronics 2014 Annual Report Download - page 24

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Our ability to realize and achieve the financial results projected from UC adoption could be adversely affected by a number of
factors, including the following:
• As UC becomes more widely adopted, the risk that competitors will offer solutions that will effectively commoditize our
headsets increases, which, in turn, may reduce the sales prices for our headsets.
• The market success of major platform providers and strategic partners such as Microsoft Corporation, Cisco Systems,
Inc., Avaya, Inc., Alcatel-Lucent, and IBM, and our influence over such providers with respect to the functionality of
their platforms and product offerings, their rate of deployment, and their willingness to integrate their platforms and
product offerings with our solutions, is limited.
• Delays or limitations on our ability to timely introduce solutions that are cost effective, feature-rich, stable, and attractive
to our customers.
• Failure to implement and execute new and different processes involving the design, development, and manufacturing of
complex electronic systems composed of hardware, firmware, and software that works in a wide variety of environments
and with multiple devices and associated development delays or errors in addition to development costs.
• Failure of our sales model and expertise to continue to evolve to support complex integration of hardware and software
with UC infrastructure. If we fail to anticipate or effectively implement changes in our sales model or channel our selling
techniques and efforts at the primary UC decision makers within enterprises, our ability to maintain and grow our share
of the UC market may be adversely impacted.
• Increased competition for market share, and some competitors may have superior technical and economic resources
enabling them to take greater advantage of the UC market opportunities.
• Failure of UC solutions to be adopted with the breadth and speed that we currently anticipate.
• Sales cycles for more complex UC deployments may substantially increase over our traditional OCC products.
• Our inability to timely and cost-effectively adapt to changes and future requirements of UC may impact our profitability
in this market and our overall margins.
• Failure to further expand our technical support capabilities to support the complex and proprietary platforms in which
our UC products are and will be integrated and increases in our support expenditures over time.
If our investments in, and strategic focus on, UC does not generate incremental revenue, our business, financial condition, and
results of operations could be materially adversely affected.
If we fail to accurately match production to demand, or our suppliers fail to timely provide quality components or services, our
business, reputation and results of operations may be materially adversely harmed.
Our industry is characterized by rapid technological changes, evolving industry standards, frequent new product introductions,
short-term customer commitments, and changes in demand. Production levels are forecasted based on anticipated and historic
product demand. Actual demand depends on many factors and may vary significantly from our forecasts. We will lose opportunities
to increase revenues and profits and may incur late delivery penalties if we underestimate the demands of our customers.
Conversely, overestimating demand could result in higher inventories of raw materials, components, and sub-assemblies ("materials
and components") and finished products, which may later require us to write off all or a material portion of our inventories. We
routinely review inventory for usage potential, including fulfillment of customer warranty obligations and spare part requirements,
and we write down to the lower of cost or market value the excess and obsolete inventory, which may have an adverse effect on
our results of operations.