MILAN, Italy, June 21, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SMART Technologies Inc. (Nasdaq:SMT) (TSX:SMA), a leading provider of collaboration solutions, announces that it continues to be the preferred supplier of interactive whiteboards in Italy. According to Futuresource Consulting, an independent research company that has been tracking interactive whiteboard sales since 2004, SMART remains the leading supplier with over 23,400 SMART Board interactive whiteboards sold in Italy. In 2010, SMART sold over 8,500 interactive whiteboards into the country and at the end of that year accounted for 46.4 percent of Italy's product category share. As the global product category leader, SMART recently announced the installation of its two millionth SMART Board interactive whiteboard. The company has been selling interactive collaboration products to Italian customers, both in education and business, for over 10 years.
There has been continual growth in the adoption of ICT and collaboration products as education administrators look to modernize classrooms and equip teachers and students with digital learning environments.
In 2009, approximately 4,000 SMART Board interactive whiteboards were installed as part of a national government initiative entitled "SCUOLA DIGITALE." The initiative was designed to introduce interactive whiteboards in secondary schools throughout the country. Schools were given a choice of suppliers, and numerous tender bids were included in the program managed by the government purchasing agency CONSIP. At the beginning of 2010, the Ministry of Education decided to extend the program to primary and upper secondary schools.
Also in 2010, SMART was awarded a tender by the province of Trento to install 1,500 SMART Board interactive whiteboards in 400 primary and secondary schools. This installation is part of a program to support the introduction of interactive whiteboards for education that began in 2005. To date, the province has installed SMART Board interactive whiteboards in over 60 percent of its classrooms. With more than 2,000 units sold in total, it has been the largest installation of interactive whiteboards of all Italian provinces.
Other significant implementations in recent years include the DIGISCUOLA project, which saw 1,650 SMART Board interactive whiteboards installed between 2007 and 2010, as well as the Lombardia region project where 800 SMART Board interactive whiteboards were installed.
"We are pleased to continue to be the preferred supplier of interactive whiteboards in Italy," said Fabrizio Colombo, Area Manager, Italy, for SMART. "Teachers and administrators choose SMART products for their proven quality, reliability and ease of use. We are also seeing growing sales for our collaboration products from business customers."
About SMART
SMART Technologies Inc. is a leading provider of collaboration solutions that transform the way the world works and learns. We believe that collaboration and interaction should be easy. As the global leader in interactive whiteboards, we bring more than two decades of collaboration research and development to a broad range of easy-to-use, integrated solutions that free people from their desks and computer screens, so collaborating and learning with digital resources are more natural.
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