Visualising an expanding market

Messenger: Now is the time to get into visualisers, which are about to boom

The market for visualisers is trembling on the edge of an explosion in 2011, according to latest research available from Futuresource Consulting.

Colin Messenger, senior consultant at Futuresource, said the market was worth $200 million (£132 million) in USA and Western Europe in 2009, and visualiser technology had penetrated around five per cent of classrooms. However, penetration would explode to 15 per cent in 2011 – meaning that resellers keen for a piece of the pie should get on board quickly.

“In the UK [alone], visualiser sales in 2009 were almost $20 million, and major growth is expected over the next three years,” Messenger said. “Like with the interactive whiteboard (IWB) market, 90 per cent is in the classroom but some are going into corporates.”

Visualisers are tools for projecting small objects onto a screen. But more visualisers will be sold in 2011 than IWBs, and they are an easy add-on sale for classrooms that already have an IWB. Total sales until now had been low, although the technology has been around for a while.

“In technology-oriented schools, the Interactive Whiteboard is the hub of the classroom, with additional technologies and devices allied to it,” he said. “In addition to the visualiser, audio packages, voting systems and tablets are all emerging as classroom equipment.”

Futuresource’s full report includes product and regional overviews, brand analysis, types of visualisers and their applications, classroom penetration and case studies.

According to Messenger, top-selling brands include AverVision, Elmo, Genee World and Lumens.

According to a statement from Genee World, its Genee Vision visualisers will be on show at giant education tech expo Bett 2011.

“We will be demonstrating our best selling Genee Vision Digital Visualiser range at the show,” it said.

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