One millionth SMART Board rolls off production line

SMART Technologies has announced that the one millionth SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard has rolled off the company’s production line, making it the first interactive whiteboard manufacturer to reach this significant milestone. Over the past 17 years, SMART has sold approximately three times as many interactive whiteboards than its closest competitor.

The Middle East market has also made a notable contribution towards the success of SMART’s products, especially over the last five years. Since 2002, SMART estimates that more than 7,000 SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards have been sold in the region, with the UAE accounting for bulk of the sales.

According to first-half data for 2008 for the interactive whiteboard product category, SMART has a 53.3 percent global category share, up from 45.5 percent in the first half of 2007. The information comes from Futuresource, an industry-leading global research company that has tracked interactive whiteboard sales for the past eight years. SMART products are assembled in a state-of-the-art 24,155 square meter (260,000 square foot) facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

For more than 15 years, SMART has continued to develop and refine its SMART Board interactive whiteboard by improving hardware design and upgrading software. The company has steadily expanded its Canadian-based operations to meet increasing global demand for its wide range of popular education, training and collaboration products. In October 2007, the company opened a new, purpose-built facility to provide the flexibility required for accelerated market expansion. With greater production capacity, SMART predicts it will produce its two millionth SMART Board interactive whiteboard within the next couple of years. SMART acknowledges the strong contributions of its staff and suppliers in reaching this notable milestone, particularly as other assembly operations have moved offshore in large numbers in recent years.

“Since we first conceptualized the interactive whiteboard, we saw the potential for the product in numerous teaching, learning and collaboration environments,” says David Martin, SMART’s cofounder and executive chairman. “It’s rewarding to know that a growing number of customers have come to appreciate the product’s benefits, and we are very proud to have reached this milestone as a Canadian based company with global reach.”

“Adoption of the SMART Board interactive whiteboard reflects our strong commitment to understanding customers’ needs,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s co-founder and CEO. “We want to thank our customers for supporting our vision by buying our products and the team of people, both inside and outside the company, who directly support our customers and provide products and services to SMART.”

Jeevan Bhingarkar, Director, Imark Distribution, SMART’s authorised Middle East distributor Intmark Distributor, said, “The one millionth milestone for the SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard is certainly a remarkable achievement and we are proud to be associated with this world-leading product. Going by the ever-growing popularity of SMART’s range of products, especially the interactive whiteboards, we are certain that several more milestones will be achieved within the next few years.”