New research reports SMART’s global product category share at 45.7%
CALGARY, Alberta --- March 13, 2008 --- SMART Technologies announces its continued leadership regarding the number of interactive whiteboards installed in education institutions around the world. The data comes from a recently released report from Decision Tree Consulting (DTC), an industry-leading UK research company that has documented interactive whiteboard sales for eight years. The report also noted that SMART increased its 2007 product category share in the education segment by 4.4 points over 2006. The company’s closest competitor has less than half of SMART’s category share. SMART now holds 53 percent of the product category share in the education segment in the United States and 57 percent in the United Kingdom.
DTC noted that 377,000 interactive whiteboards were sold to education institutions in 2007. The two geographies exhibiting the most significant growth were the United States (55 percent) and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (48 percent). DTC forecasts that the worldwide interactive whiteboard category will increase by 200 percent in the next five years and that one in six classrooms will have an interactive whiteboard by 2011.
“SMART continues to lead the interactive whiteboard product category in education with strong sales around the world,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “Regardless of the geography or rate of adoption, we strive to provide the best user experience supported by the best product design incorporating continuous customer feedback, and our customers continue to prefer our product over all others.”
A brief history of the SMART Board interactive whiteboard
Twenty-two years ago, SMART’s executive chairman and co-founder, David Martin, conceptualized the SMART Board interactive whiteboard – the first and most widely installed interactive whiteboard in the world. In 1991, the first generation of the SMART Board interactive whiteboard was introduced. Currently in its sixth generation, the SMART Board interactive whiteboard line has expanded to include models integrated with projectors and other tools. SMART’s focus has expanded to include a variety of supporting hardware, software and content to create complete classroom and meeting room solutions.
