Interactive whiteboards and interactive flat panel displays in the education and corporate sectors achieved close to 270,000 unit sales in Q2 2014, a similar volume to Q2 last year and a good pick up after a quiet Q1, according to the latest quarterly research from Futuresource Consulting.
“The product shift from interactive whiteboards to interactive flat panels is gaining momentum, but has yet to make the jump across to all countries,” says Colin Messenger, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “IFPD volumes are significant, accounting for one in every four displays sold globally. There were nine vendors showing IFPDs at the recent ISTE conference, which should also contribute to future growth.”
Asia Dominating, USA Subsiding, but at a Slower Rate
Asia bounced back in Q2 with an increase of 12% YoY, while China posted strong growth of 18% YoY. Asia still dominates the market with sales of over 150,000 – which accounted for two thirds of the global share. Asia is forecast to remain the largest region for the next five years with over 40% share in 2018.
USA sales almost reached 50,000 displays, an 11% YoY decrease. This was a marked improvement from the 20% decreases from previous quarters. Over half of classrooms already have an interactive display with penetration now at 60% and this will increase to 74% by 2018.
EMEA on Track
EMEA performed below last year’s results, mainly due to low volumes in Russia. Russian sales have been hit by budget cuts, currency exchange rates and new tender legislation.
The second phase of the FATIH project in Turkey has now started and Futuresource projections show that this will account for over one third of all sales in EMEA this year.
In the UK, interactive flat panel displays are taking significant market share away from interactive whiteboards, which in turn will create the faster value growth.
The Global Perspective
The latest round of Futuresource research shows that the total display technologies market of interactive whiteboards, interactive flat panels and interactive projectors will exceed 1.3 million devices by 2018. However, the adoption rates of these three products are very different by country and even by region (Futuresource has compared all three technologies in 67 countries).
“In 2013, seven million tablets were purchased by schools across the globe and this has definitely contributed to the increased competition for education budgets,” says Messenger.
“The scale of the corporate space presents a number of alternative opportunities. Moving forward we see the corporate market as the fastest growing sector, increasing to 24% by 2017, with the growth coming from more developed markets like the USA, UK, Germany and Sweden.”
The Interactive Displays Quarterly Market Track is a comprehensive service, based on actual sales-in data from vendors. The service covers both interactive whiteboards and interactive flat panels in education and corporate sectors.