Education IT market prospects looking up
Set to double in value by 2015
Selling IT hardware packages to schools might be a future growth industry.
According to a report by Futuresource Consulting the value of IT Hardware in education is set to double in value by 2015.
Colin Messenger, senior consultant at Futuresource Consulting said that last year, worldwide spend on IT hardware in education was $9.5 billion, an 11 percent increase on 2010 despite the global economic slowdown.
He thinks this figure will double by 2015 and IT busineses selling into the Education market should see it as a key vertical in the B2B arena.
Messenger said that governments were realising the benefits of an IT literate workforce and the impact of technology as a teaching and learning tool. The sorts of things that schools are looking for are mobile PC sales such as tablets, netbooks and notebooks.
Messenger said that by 2015, mobile PC sales will increase three-fold.
Mike Fisher, Head of B2B, Futuresource Consulting pointed out that the notebook has been the main growth device for the last five years, accounting for more than half of last year’s market value.
At the moment the early growth is coming from the Asia Pacific region, but the US Market and Europe must follow soon.
In the US the Apple channel has been dominating.
Within the classroom displays category, Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) have long dominated the market, with few affordable competing alternatives available to challenge their position. Interactive projectors have seen strong early adoption, though this success has largely been driven by entry level positioning and pricing.