Education hardware spend up 23 per cent

Impressive 2012 growth seen across global education tech market

The hardware portion of the global education technology market surged a satisfying 23 per cent last year, according to Futuresource Consulting.

Colin Messenger, senior analyst at Futuresource, said the total spend for the 2012 year rose to $11.6bn (£7.5bn) year on year. "This is a strong result compared to other markets and considering the pressure on education budgets across the world," he added.

Growth was expected until 2017 – although it would not continue with such strength, he suggested, seeing a compound annual growth rate 2012-2017 of 12 per cent. Even so, that meant the market would expand to $21bn by 2017, Messenger (pictured) said.

According to Futuresource's research, the growth is due to schools increasingly favouring digital technologies for software, hardware, services, infrastructure and content. The continuing popularity of mobile computing was also fuelling sales.

The mobile PC market is now worth $6.8bn worldwide, accounting for 59 per cent of the total education market spend – up from 51 per cent in 2011.

Meanwhile, media tablets and so-called one-to-one learning programmes were also growing in popularity from India to Turkey, Brazil, South Korea and Thailand.

Globally, about a million displays were sold to schools, representing a rise of 15 per cent year on year. Interactive flat panels are becoming a larger proportion of the displays sold to schools, universities and other education institutions.

Interactive projects are expected to prove one of the strongest classroom categories in 2012-2017, with a compounded growth rate of 19 per cent a year.

Futuresource's conclusions are based on its Technology in Education: Global Trends, Universe Spend and Market Outlook report.