“Interactive Flat Panels (IFPDs) have been a major success story in 2015. By Q4, 59% of all interactive display sales were IFPDs. The growth has been explosive from 18% in 2013, 33% in 2014 to 57% in 2015”, reports Futuresource
Furthermore, the researchers report that this growth is forecast to continue up to 82% by 2020. The interactive whiteboard (IWB), generally the technology replaced, is in decline, but combined the two technologies contributed to 1.5 million displays sold worldwide in 2015.
At BETT, there were 18 vendors demonstrating 84” 4K interactive displays. 4K and multi-touch is now standard with most vendors offering ten touch.
The other focus area has been the interest in migrating interactive displays from the classroom to the meeting room. Numerous vendors produce interactive displays aimed at the boardroom, company meeting rooms and huddle spaces. At the recent ISE, there was an abundance of examples of how the technology, which is currently in 1 in 4 classrooms (over 10 million across the world) can start to move into companies.
Futuresource expect growth of interactive displays into corporates is to start this year backed by the global power of Microsoft, Samsung, Sharp and SMART, who are all pushing hard to develop this new market. While Microsoft is set to focus on the top end of the corporate and higher education markets, there are now IFPDs from $3,000 (£2,100) with feature light alternatives to service SME customers.
As well as driving volume demand, schools are also choosing larger screen sizes. In the UK and USA, the bestselling IFPD size is now 60” to 69” but the fastest growing is in the 0” to 79” category. At BETT, there were 18 vendors demonstrating 84” 4K interactive displays. 4K and multi-touch is now standard with most vendors offering ten touch.
