The Past, Present and Future of SMART Interactive Whiteboards

The Irish Times has an interesting article on the history of the interactive whiteboard from the perspective of the inventors of the SMART Board. The idea for the technology came to Canadian mathematician Dave Martin in 1987, and he promptly created SMART Technologies with his wife Nancy Knowlton. The company presented its first interactive whiteboard to the world in 1991, and the rest is history. A couple of interesting points from the article:

• Martin witnessed the PC revolution firsthand in the late 80s and felt inspired to ride the wave with a specialized product that could take advantage of the new technology. It just goes to show that when opportunity knocks, it’s important to answer the door.
• According to the article, SMART has a 53% share of the worldwide interactive whiteboard market and just sold its one millionth board. It’ll be interesting to see if new boards from companies like Mead can eventually compete with the incumbent.
• We’ve all seen how the technology has grown and slowly replaced traditional whiteboards in classrooms around the world. Reports indicate that the next frontier is the corporate boardroom, where the traditional whiteboard still reigns supreme. Look for some resistance from established corporate bureaucracies as SMART attempts to break into a new market.

Overall, it’s an interesting article and certainly worth reading for perspective on where the interactive whiteboard market has been and where it’s going. And in the end, it suggests that the early bird in the corporate market may very well get the worm for the foreseeable future.

Posted by Taeho Lim