Installation a significant milestone for interactive whiteboard product category leader
CALGARY, Alberta --- June 30, 2008 --- SMART Technologies announces it anticipates installing its one millionth SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard in August 2008. SMART is the leader in the interactive whiteboard product category and currently holds 56.8 percent of the product category share worldwide. The category share data comes from Q1 2008 results from Decision Tree Consulting (DTC), an industry-leading global research company that has tracked interactive whiteboard sales for the last eight years. SMART will be the first interactive whiteboard manufacturer to reach this milestone. Interactive whiteboards are increasingly considered a standard teaching and learning tool around the world.
SMART introduced the world’s first interactive whiteboard – the SMART Board interactive whiteboard – in 1991. Now in its sixth generation, the SMART Board interactive whiteboard has maintained its leadership position throughout the 17-year period. Following on the success of the SMART Board interactive whiteboard, SMART has developed a variety of complementary hardware and software products for the education and corporate markets. This includes a host of first-to-market products, the latest being the SMART Board interactive display frame and a line of corporate products collectively called SMART corporate solutions. The SMART Board interactive whiteboard has won, and continues to win, awards around the world, and complementary products in the SMART family have been winning awards as well. For example, SMART Notebook software, the collaborative learning software that ships with every SMART Board interactive whiteboard, recently won a 2008 Worlddidac Award, and both the SMART Board 600i interactive whiteboard system and Senteo™ interactive response system recently won Comenius EduMedia Signet 2008 Awards from the Society for Pedagogy and Information.
“The rate of adoption of interactive whiteboards is increasing dramatically right now, and industry watchdogs are predicting continued strong adoption,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “We are very proud to be leading this growth and even more pleased to know the difference that our products are making to teachers and students around the world.”
A brief history of the SMART Board interactive whiteboard
Seventeen 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 a range of sizes and models integrated with projectors and other interactive tools. SMART’s focus has also widened to include a variety of supporting hardware, software and content to create complete classroom and meeting room solutions.
Research shows that the SMART Board interactive whiteboard increases student engagement and motivation and delivers statistically significant improvements in student achievement. For more information, visit News and research at education.smarttech.com.
About SMART
SMART Technologies is an industry pioneer and global education market segment leader in user-friendly ICT products and group collaboration tools. The award-winning line of SMART Board interactive whiteboards is the most widely installed in the world because of its unsurpassed product quality, versatility and ease of use. The SMART Board interactive whiteboard is used to teach over 18 million students in more than 600,000 classrooms in more than 100 countries around the world.
SMART is a private company founded in 1987. Employing more than 1,100 people, SMART is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with assembly facilities in Ottawa, Ontario, and offices in Bonn, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, New York City, Chicago and Washington, DC. SMART has been issued and maintains a broad portfolio of patents with numerous U.S., Canadian and other patents pending. In 1992, SMART formed a strategic alliance with Intel® Corporation that resulted in Intel’s equity ownership in the company. SMART products are sold through dealers across North America and distributors worldwide. To learn more about SMART, visit www.smarttech.com.
