Record shipments confirm SMART’s product category share leadership
CALGARY, Alberta --- November 10, 2008 --- SMART Technologies announces record third-quarter shipments of over 100,000 SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards - the largest number of units the industry leader has shipped in any single quarter. Globally, for all market segments, SMART’s share for Q3 was 57.4 percent, up seven points from Q2, as reported by Futuresource Consulting, a leading global research company that has tracked interactive whiteboard shipments for over eight years. Futuresource also identifies SMART as the global leader in the K-12 market segment with a 57.1 percent share, an increase of almost seven points from the previous quarter. Year-to-date results from Futuresource show that SMART has a 55 percent category share, up more than eight points from 2007. The company entered Q3 with a substantial order book and increased production to meet demand within the quarter. Orders were strong throughout Q3 and leading into Q4.
Futuresource named SMART as the clear leader in all interactive whiteboard product categories. For example, SMART shipped 67 percent of all interactive whiteboard systems (which integrate an interactive whiteboard and short-throw projector) in Q3, nearly 41 points higher than its closest competitor. For screen sizes larger than 65" (165 cm) on the diagonal, SMART’s Q3 global share was 57.2 percent, which is up more than 16 points from Q3 in 2007 and was more than double its closest competitor. In the United States, which is the largest and most rapidly growing interactive whiteboard market in the world, SMART earned a 66.6 percent product category share in Q3, up 15.2 points from Q2. In the U.S. interactive whiteboard systems category (integrated interactive whiteboard and short-throw projector), SMART’s share in Q3 was 70.6 percent, almost three times greater than its closest competitor. In the United Kingdom, the world’s most advanced interactive whiteboard market, SMART had a 61.2 percent category share, up from 57 percent in Q2.
“Results from Futuresource confirm SMART’s significant global leadership across all models of interactive whiteboards,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “Record shipments in the third quarter reflect the value that our customers place on SMART products, resources, services and support – a combination that clearly works for our customers and indicates why SMART leads this category.”
Q3 Interactive Whiteboard Category Data and Forecast
Futuresource noted that 181,634 interactive whiteboards were shipped in Q3, a 43.9 percent increase over Q3 2007. The worldwide interactive whiteboard product category continues to exhibit rapid growth, and Futuresource forecasts that the annual number of units shipped will double over the next three to four years, with global classroom market penetration increasing from 5.4 percent in 2008 to 16.2 percent, or approximately one in six classrooms, by 2012. Classroom market penetration is led by the UK at 72 percent in 2008, followed by Mexico at 26.7 percent and the U.S. at 22.4 percent.
