Global sales of interactive whiteboards and interactive flat panel displays in the education and corporate sectors reached 1.3 million units in 2013, up 1 percent on the previous year and making it the largest year on record, according to the final 2013 quarterly research report from Futuresource Consulting.

“The education sector provides a vast target market for vendors and component suppliers alike, with over 38 million classrooms and 1.5 billion enrolled students and teachers across the world,” says Colin Messenger, senior market analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “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, taking share from interactive whiteboards and — in the UK — accounting for 45 percent of sales in Q4.”

Asia still dominates the market with 2013 sales of over 800,000, representing 24 percent annual growth. Asia is forecast to remain the largest region for the next five years, with China being the driving force with sales of 700,000.

The American market is experiencing an annual decrease of 15 percent. Volumes are forecast to remain flat over the next two years before growth, spurred on by corporate sales, which are currently 16 percent, and forecast to exceed 50 percent of the market in 2018.

“Over half of classrooms already have either an interactive display or interactive projector, and by 2018 penetration will reach almost 80 percent,” says Messenger.

EMEA performed above target in the quarter, spurred on again by strong performances from Russia and countries in Western Europe.

“Phase 2 of FATIH — Turkey’s National Education Project — will start in Q2 2014 and Futuresource projections show that this will account for over 40 percent of all sales in EMEA,” says Messenger. “The program is due to run across 16 months.”

Futuresource forecasts show that the total display technologies market of interactive whiteboards, interactive flat panels and interactive projectors will begin to decline towards the end of the decade, but will still exceed 1.2 million devices shipped in 2018. However, the adoption rates of the three products are very different by country and even by region (Futuresource has compared all three technologies in 67 countries).

“The scale of the corporate space presents alternative opportunities. Moving forward we see the corporate market as the fastest growing sector, increasing to 1/4 of all sales by 2018, with the growth coming from more developed markets like the USA, UK, Germany and Sweden.”

Futuresource is here.