IWB sales to top a million

Futuresource Consulting foresees strong growth in interactive whiteboard sector

EMEA IWB sales hit 250,000 last year

A million interactive whiteboards (IWBs) could be sold globally in 2010, with EMEA still growing strongly, according to the latest figures from Futuresource Consulting.

Colin Messenger, senior consultant at Futuresource, said 750,000 were sold worldwide in 2009, with 250,000 sold in EMEA. The EMEA full-year figure is an 18 per cent increase on 2008.

“Some 17,000 were sold in Spain, its sales for the final quarter of 2009 being almost larger than the UK’s,” said Messenger. The UK had sales of 55,000 IWBs in 2009.

Ten times the number of IWBs were at one point sold in the UK as in the whole of the rest of Europe. However, Europe is catching up.

“Back in 2005 only three countries sold more than 10,000 IWBs; last year we saw 12. Our projections suggest one in six classrooms will have an IWB by 2012,” said Messenger.

The UK has flattened out, but continental sales will require localised expertise, so UK VARs might be advised to concentrate on complementary solution sales here, he added.