The global spend on education technology within classrooms reached US$13 billion last year, up 11 percent on 2012, according to a new market study from Futuresource Consulting, the leading provider of education technology research.

The study explores mobile PC devices, classroom displays (such as projectors and interactive whiteboards) and complementary devices (visualisers, voting systems, voice amplification and related products), and reveals that the market will continue to rise in value out to 2018 and beyond.

“Despite a lull in a number of other technology markets, education technology continues to perform, even with pressure being applied to education budgets across the world,” says Colin Messenger, senior market analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “Our annual strategic report also shows that there’s plenty of growth to come, with the total universe value expected to reach US$19 billion by 2018, a CAGR of 8 percent from 2013 to 2018.”

The Continued Rise of the Mobile PC: This increase of universe spend in education technology has been primarily driven by the uplift in the mobile PC market – laptops, tablets and netbooks – which now accounts for 62 percent of the total spend.

The explosion of tablets and one-to-one learning programs, primarily driven by the iPad and iPad Mini, has dominated the news in the last 12 months. This is especially true in US districts where iPad sales have taken a dominant slice of the budget. Tablet PCs are also projected to see significant growth over the forecast period, due to the implementation of large volume projects such as Turkey’s FATIH tender, as well as other tenders in Korea, India, and Thailand. Many countries are also experiencing increasing uptake of Chromebooks.

In addition, the growth of the tablet category is fuelling an increasing trend for interaction between classroom display and tablets, and this trend is likely to drive integration of AV and IT solutions.

The Classroom Displays Category: 1.4 million displays were sold into education last year; the product mix continues to transform, with interactive flat panels experiencing more than a four-fold volume increase. There is a proliferation of new models and new vendors entering the market, which is leading to increased competition, especially for IWB vendors who have traditionally dominated the segment.

The interactive flat panel market is expected to have some of the greatest growth in the classroom technology market, with a 2013 to 2018 volume CAGR of 11 percent.

“As the education sector continues to transition towards digital, many further requirements need to be met beyond the hardware itself,” says Messenger, “with the emphasis being channelled from hardware activity into software, content, infrastructure and services.”

Futuresource is hosting a free-to-attend webinar on Wednesday 9 July, focusing on developments in the education ecosystem. For more information, click here.