SMART Leads the Class in Global Education Market
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SMART celebrates 20 years of innovation and leading segment share in education collaboration solutions
CALGARY, ALBERTA --- June 28, 2006 ---This year SMART celebrates two decades of developing innovative, collaborative, customer-focused technology products. It took five years and a significant investment of time and money to make the idea a reality, but in 1991, SMART introduced the world's first interactive whiteboard. The award-winning company has maintained its leadership position in the interactive whiteboard market segment, even with the growing number of later entrants into the market.
SMART's name is synonymous with innovation, quality, value and commitment, and it offers the world's broadest selection of interactive whiteboard products, accessories, training and support. The company continues to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit that has driven the company from the start by developing new products and regularly adding to its growing patent portfolio. Over the past 20 years, the SMART product line has expanded to include the latest innovation in interactive pen displays, interactive digital signage, wireless slates and software. Having built the interactive whiteboard industry from scratch, SMART knows that innovation and meeting customer needs are the only engines of success. SMART Board(TM) interactive whiteboards are now in more than 330,000 classrooms worldwide, engaging more than 11 million students in upwards of 100 countries every day.
"Developing the world's first interactive whiteboard took a lot of creativity and perseverance, and the SMART Board interactive whiteboard has been a great source of pride for SMART," says Nancy Knowlton, the company's co-founder, president and co-CEO. "In the end, it's not about creating technology products that do more, function better and cost less. It's about contributing to a whole new technologically driven world that can actually make life richer, more collaborative and more meaningful for people of all ages. We've been able to maintain our focus on these ideals because we have talented people, a commitment to excellence and a loyal, engaged relationship with our customers."
About SMART's leadership
The commitment to excellence has given SMART the market edge over its competitors. Today SMART products are in 82 percent of the top 500 school districts in the United States and the company holds 58 percent of the interactive whiteboard market segment in the United Kingdom. In Mexico, the Enciclomedia project is equipping more than 145,000 Mexican classrooms with technology products worth US$1.8 billion - and SMART is the single largest provider of interactive whiteboards to the project, supplying over 51,000 SMART Board interactive whiteboards.
Many of the world's largest companies accelerate their product development by including SMART products in their collaboration systems. NASA trusts SMART on its missions to Mars. The world's armies prepare their soldiers with SMART products in their training centers. And children everywhere are getting switched on to learning with SMART products. This level of trust and engagement with customers has been built over the last 20 years by listening to what customers have to say and then working diligently to meet their needs.
About SMART Board interactive whiteboards
The SMART Board interactive whiteboard is a large, touch-sensitive display. Connected to a computer and projector, the interactive whiteboard is like a giant computer screen that students and teachers simply touch to operate. Using their finger or a pen as a mouse, teachers and students can access and control any computer application, file or multimedia platform, including the Internet, CD-ROMs and DVDs. They can also write over applications in digital ink, then save their work for future study and review. The SMART Board interactive whiteboard engages students with diverse learning styles by providing both immediate access to a wide range of digital materials and a common focus for the entire class - not something easily achieved with other classroom technology products. It is the number one choice among primary and secondary school educators in upwards of 100 countries because it captures the imagination of students of all backgrounds and abilities in order to help them learn together, understand better and achieve more. For more information, visit http://www.smarttech.com/smartboard.
About SMART
SMART Technologies Inc. is both the industry pioneer and global education market segment leader in easy-to-use interactive whiteboards and other group collaboration tools. The award-winning SMART Board interactive whiteboard is the most widely installed interactive whiteboard in the world. Many school jurisdictions have standardized on the product, which is used to provide interactive learning opportunities and enhance student achievement in more than 330,000 classrooms spanning every U.S. state, all Canadian provinces, every Local Authority in the UK and more than 100 countries worldwide. SMART products also include interactive pen displays, interactive digital signage, wireless slates and software. SMART's education customers include New York City Board of Education (U.S.), Oxford University (UK), Barnier Public School (Australia), University of Ottawa (Canada), United World College (Singapore), Stephen-Hawking-Schule Neckargemuend (Germany), Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (U.S.) and Harvard University (U.S.).
SMART is a private company founded in 1987. Employing more than 800 people, SMART is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with assembly facilities in Ottawa, and offices in Bonn, Tokyo, New York City and Washington DC. SMART has been issued and maintains a broad portfolio of patents with numerous other U.S., Canadian and foreign patents pending. In 1992, SMART formed a strategic alliance with Intel® Corporation that resulted in joint product development and marketing efforts, and Intel's equity ownership in the company. SMART products are sold through dealers across North America and distributors worldwide.
For more information, contact
Paul Bowen
Senior Public Relations Specialist
SMART Technologies Inc.
1207 - 11 Avenue SW, Suite 300
Calgary, AB T3C 0M5
CANADA
Phone +1.403.802.2595 Fax +1.403.228.2500
PaulBowen@smarttech.com
www.smarttech.com
