New research reports SMART's global product category share at 45.7 per cent; Europe, Middle East and Africa region achieve 48 per cent growth
SMART Technologies has announced 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 per cent of the product category share in the education segment in the United States and 57 per cent 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 per cent) and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (48 per cent). 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," said 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."
"It comes as no surprise that SMART's interactive whiteboards are in such demand around the world. Even in the Middle East, we have been witnessing a steady increase in demand for SMART's products from education institutions across the region, and we are certain that this growth in demand will further increase in coming years," said Maher Husseini, Director, Intmark Distribution, SMART's authorised Middle East distributor.
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.
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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 1,000 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.
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© 2008 SMART Technologies ULC. SMART Board, Notebook, smarttech and the SMART logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies ULC in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other third-party company names and products are for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.
© Press Release 2008
