Global Collaboration Displays Market Soars by 172%

Displays Market Analysis and Commentary

The market for collaboration displays, with embedded cameras, microphones and speakers optimised for conferencing applications, increased by 172% by volume during the 12 months ending March 2019, that’s according to the latest worldwide report from Futuresource Consulting’s collaboration displays market tracking service.

“It’s nearly ten years since SMART launched the first interactive display tailored to the corporate market,” says Colin Messenger, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. “Since then, the segment has expanded to include more than 20 brands, with evermore sophisticated solutions and embedded collaboration tools now the core focus.

“Over the last three years, interest and demand has gone through the roof. The corporate meeting room space has been transformed, with modern working habits and technological advancements contributing to its rebirth as a collaborative workspace. With developments in collaboration displays taking place during this time of workplace reinvention, display vendors are well-positioned to take full advantage of the opportunity.”

According to the Futuresource report, collaboration display volumes for full-year 2018 increased by over 154%.

Tracking the global market and key world regions, as well as drilling down into the USA, China, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands and Denmark, the report breaks out the collaboration displays market into three key segments. These are Interactive Flat Panel Display (IFPD) conferencing end points, network connected IFPDs and Unified Communications Displays (UCDs).

IFPD conferencing end points are similar in feature set to standard corporate IFPDs, but with the addition of embedded cameras, microphones and speakers. This segment is accelerating fast, the devices are proving particularly popular in China, where CVTE and HiteVision are the market leaders. The segment is also gaining traction from leading interactive display vendors, already selling high volumes into the education market, now focusing on collaboration products with success.

Network connected IFPDs, with the addition of network connectivity as the name suggests, experienced 11% volume growth in 2018, with Futuresource forecasts indicating 20% growth this year. This segment is dominated by Sharp, accounting for more than two out of every three device sales, with Ricoh and Viewsonic also prominent brands in the space.

UCDs provide an end-to-end hardware and platform solution, optimised to support a specific platform, typically incurring a monthly or annual platform licensing fee. Due to the lack of availability of Microsoft Surface Hub, volumes in this segment fell by 15% in 2018, with 2019 forecasts also being reduced, as the Surface Hub 2S will not be shipped until Q3 2019 at the earliest. However, Cisco’s WebEx Board has performed well, resulting in Cisco commanding more than 75% market share, compared to Google Jamboard at less than 25%.

“The corporate market takes the lion’s share of collaboration displays,” says Messenger, “accounting for 85% of global sales. The remaining 15% is sold into education, where higher education is the predominant market, as today’s products and licencing costs are considered too expensive for most K-12 schools. This global percentage split between corporate and education is mirrored at the regional level, with Americas, Asia and EMEA exhibiting similar ratios.”

Futuresource expects continued growth for the overall collaboration displays market, with total volumes forecast to have a CAGR of 25.1% up to 2023.

The new report is part of Futuresource Consulting’s collaboration displays market track service, which includes market sizing and forecasts 2016 to 2023 (volume and value), brand share development, regional market forecasts, a qualitative review of market drivers, new product reviews and global volumes segmented by key regions and countries.

About the author

Colin Messenger

Colin has been with Futuresource Consulting for over 25 years, he has been involved with the Interactive and schools markets on a day-to-day basis for over eighteen years and runs the worldwide interactivity displays research programmes.

Prior to Futuresource he held senior positions at Orange for 10 years, and as General Manager of Euronet Cellular Communications launched the first UK distribution company to offer a consumer mobile phone package to dealers.

He was a member of the UK Government’s DfES, Classroom of the Future Project (Ingenium) and he has been an AV Awards judge over the last 12 years. He is a STEM Ambassador, where he visits schools enthusing on careers in science and technology. He is governor of a London school and acts as a strategic partner for their IT vision plan.