Interactive whiteboards and interactive flat panel displays in the education and corporate sectors achieved close to 440,000 unit sales globally in Q3 2014, making it the second largest quarter since Futuresource Consulting began tracking the market more than 15 years ago.
"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, says Colin Messenger, senior market analyst at Futuresource Consulting.
"IFPD (interactive flat panel displays) volumes are significant, accounting for 29% of all displays sold, with a number of product launches at ISTE likely to spur on further growth."
Asia continued to post strong growth in Q3 with an increase of 2% YoY, while China continued its ascent, with more than half of all world sales.
US sales again decreased. One-to-one learning programs continue to develop apace in the US, with the introduction of common core assessments in 2014 acting as a stimulus for many districts. This major movement towards one-to-one, including internet infrastructure, diverts funds and focus away from front-of-class displays.
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.
In the UK, interactive flat panel displays accounted for 57% of sales, taking significant market share away from interactive whiteboards and triggering faster value growth.
The latest round of Futuresource research shows that the total display technologies market of interactive whiteboards, interactive flat panels and interactive projectors will exceed 1.3 million devices by 2019. However, the adoption rates of these three products are very different by country and by region - Futuresource has compared all three technologies in 67 countries.
"In 2013, seven million tablets were purchased by schools across the globe and this has contributed to increased competition for education budgets," says Messenger. "However, the scale of the corporate space presents a number of alternative opportunities. Moving forward we see the corporate market as the fastest growing sector for interactive displays, increasing to more than 20% of total sales by 2018, with the growth coming from more developed markets like the USA, UK, Germany and Sweden."
The Interactive Displays Quarterly Market Track is based on sales-in data from vendors. The service covers interactive whiteboards and interactive flat panels in education and corporate sectors.