Worldwide sales of interactive voting systems topped 750,000 during the second quarter of 2006, with the UK selling more than 50,000 handsets, according to recent figures from analyst Decision Tree Consulting (DTC).
Manufacturer and distributor Promethean remained the UK market leader with a 24.8 per cent market share for its Activote product, followed by vendor Turning Technologies, which increased its share to 23.6 per cent during Q2.
Turning Technologies’ Turning Point voting system is distributed in the UK solely through Steljes. Mitt Nathwani, product manager for Turning Point at Steljes, said: “We are pleased with this rapid growth. In December we had less than one per cent share of the market. In Q1 we had a 16 per cent share and now we are hot on the heels of Promethean.
“Schools are still at the exploratory stage. They are trialling voting systems to see if they make a difference. Unfortunately, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has given a false image to teachers as to what voting systems can do: they can do so much more than just answer multiple choice questions. We are working with our resellers to educate teachers about the features.”
Steve Dracup, managing director of Promethean, said: “A lot of teachers don’t understand how voting systems can benefit them in the school environment.”
Colin Messenger, senior consultant at DTC, told CRN: “Voting systems are now where interactive whiteboards [IWBs] were two to three years ago. In the past five years, sales of IWBs have increased 10-fold. There is no reason why voting systems can’t do the same.
“VARs tend to target primary and secondary schools with voting systems because that’s where their experience lies, but there is nothing to stop them targeting universities. In the US, the higher education market is the dominant market for voting systems.”
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