Heady Q3 for interactive displays and whiteboards

Quarterly sales round-up shows a boost in market where some sub-segments are often thought near saturation

Shipments of interactive whiteboards and flat panels to schools and businesses tipped 440,000 units worldwide in Q3 – making it the category's second-largest quarter Futuresource has tracked in 15 years.

Colin Messenger, senior market analyst at Futuresource, said: "The product shift from interactive whiteboards to interactive flat panels continues to make waves in the industry, though has yet to percolate through all countries."

Messenger said his research showed that interactive flat-panel volumes in particular are significant, accounting for 29 per cent of all displays sold, with a number of product launches likely to spur more growth.

EMEA is doing well, he said, although US sales decreased. As one might expect, Asia drives the market, with China alone accounting for more than half of all sales worldwide.

"EMEA performed above last year's results, helped by the second phase of the FATIH project in Turkey; Futuresource projections show that this will account for over one third of all sales in EMEA this year," explained Messenger.

"In the UK, interactive flat panel displays accounted for 57 per cent of sales, taking significant market share away from interactive whiteboards and triggering faster value growth."

The total interactive flat panel, whiteboard and projector market is expected to exceed 1.3m units by 2019 – but sales will vary widely between companies and regions, he noted.

"In 2013, seven million tablets were purchased by schools across the globe and this has contributed to increased competition for education budgets," said Messenger. "However, the scale of the corporate space presents a number of alternative opportunities."

The fastest-growing segment for interactive displays in future will be corporate sales, which would represent 20 per cent of total sales by 2018, with the growth coming from the developed world, according to Futuresource's quarterly tracker.