Annual interactive whiteboard sales up six per cent to £75m

UK market enjoyed revenue growth for full 2013 year says Futuresource

Sales of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) in the UK netted £75m for suppliers in the 2013 year, up six per cent in value terms from 2012.

Colin Messenger, senior market analyst at Futuresource Consulting (pictured), said his figures show that some 43,000 units were shipped in the UK last year.

"In Q4, the interactive flat panel display category was a 45 per cent share of the market," he said. "As the interactive displays market has evolved we now see interactive flat panels moving centre stage as they become the fastest growing product in the market."

Across the globe, a total of 1.3m IWBs were sold, just one per cent more in unit terms than in 2012. However, more were still sold in 2013 than in any other year so far, Futuresource's quarterly research report found.

The Asia region is leading, having bought 800,000 of the gadgets last year -- a 24 per cent expansion on 2012 in shipment terms. For the next five years, Asia is expected to retain its lead, with China alone accounting for a cool 700,000 units.

Penetration is already high, conversely, in developed markets such as the US and the UK. In EMEA, Turkey is expected to buy 40 per cent of all the IWBs sold in the region from Q2 as a government education project kicks off.

The corporate market, however, is forecast to become the fastest growing sector globally and account for 25 per cent of all sales by 2018 as the education market becomes saturated.

Towards the end of this decade, the global IWB market is expected to decline, having hit around 1.2m shipments a year in 2018, according to Futuresource.