Interactive Flat Panel Displays (IFPDs) continued to be a considerable success in 2018 in the education and corporate markets. By Q4, 83 percent of all interactive display sales were IFPDs, increasing from 73 percent last year, according to the latest research from Futuresource Consulting.
Fifty-five of the 67 countries that Futuresource track had growth in 2018, with many countries growing by 100 percent. The Interactive Whiteboard (IWB), the original technology, is in decline, but it still contributes a significant volume.
The USA had over 24 percent annual IFPD volume growth, with rapid transition to larger size IFPDs—well over half of sales are now over 70 inches. Over three-fourths of U.S. classrooms now have an interactive display, and the level of growth is forecast to continue.
At Bett 2019, the leading global education exhibition, IFPDs were, as we have come to expect, right across the show. There were over 30 brands on display, some for the first time. Bett really is seen as the place to exhibit. Over half of these brands do not exhibit at ISTE, the equivalent exhibition in U.S.
Previously, this market had been dominated by education, and specifically the K-12 market. The corporate meeting room market has remained an almost untapped market, but the scale of the opportunity is vast, with 32 million corporate meeting rooms globally and well under one million displays installed to date.
Vendors across a variety of product areas have entered the corporate meeting room market, with ISE 2019 seeing a proliferation of meeting room displays promoting collaboration via interactivity.
“The Samsung Flip is a cause of fast expansion in many countries,” said Colin Messenger, senior market analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “The ‘Flip Chart’ format is expected to be followed by many other brands, some early models were on show at ISE 2019 from i3 Technologies and Sharp.
"Providers are leveraging their existing channel and user relationships and promoting 'all-in-one' meeting room solutions. The volume of interactive displays sold into the corporate market expanded over 100 percent in 2018.”
Most vendors now have screen sharing capabilities with multiple devices, often as standard. 4K and multi touch (10 to 20 points) are now standard, with most offerings having at least 10 touch points. Panel providers are rapidly transitioning large screen sizes (60-plus inches) to 4K from 1080p.
“The trend toward more display personalization continues,” Messenger said. “It’s very useful for a teacher or corporate user moving between classroom/meeting room, to be able to set up the display to a preset height, content and configuration via biometric fingerprint reader or NFC card control.”
This 90-page report examines the current state of the interactive display market across 67 countries, exploring market segmentation, drivers and barriers as well as detailed five-year forecasts.
