Worldwide sales of interactive voting systems increased by 50 per cent between the first quarter of 2005 and the first quarter of 2006, with the US accounting for 85 per cent of the world total and the UK nine per cent.

According to recent research from Decision Tree Consulting (DTC), the worldwide market will increase by more than 70 per cent this year, with the UK predicted to grow by 300 per cent.

Colin Messenger, senior consultant at DTC, told CRN: “Last year, 162,000 handsets were sold in the UK; this year we estimate that more than half a million handsets will be sold. Resellers that have already sold an interactive whiteboard (IWB) and a projector to a school can now revisit them and offer them voting systems.”

Manufacturer and distributor Promethean is the current UK market leader with its Presentavote product. Promethean had a 20 per cent share of the UK market during Q1 2006, followed by Turning Point which held a 16 per cent share.

Steve Dracup, managing director of Promethean, said: “The interactive voting market is still pretty new in the UK – it’s where IWBs were five years ago. We hope there will be a big market for voting systems, but a lot of schools are still focusing on IWBs and projectors. Resellers need to go out and show teachers how voting systems work.”

Steljes is the sole UK distributor of Turning Point interactive voting systems. Mitt Nathwani, product manager for Turning Point at Steljes, said: “My goal is to get Turning Point to the number one position for interactive voting systems in the UK. Education is the main market for Turning Point now, but a lot of universities are beginning to adopt it as well as corporates. Our rental market is also growing.”

Steljes launched a direct mail and lead generation campaign last week to help drive sales of Turning Point for its resellers. Nathwani said Steljes currently has about 38 resellers signed up to sell the system.

laura_hailstone@vnu.co.uk