The calendar year Q3 projectors market came in at 2,032K units, 3.6 percent up on the previous quarter and showing very slight year-on-year growth on Q3 2011 (2,029K units), according to the latest round of research from Futuresource Consulting.

The flattening and — in some cases — decline of the developed markets in Europe and the Americas is borne out in the Q3 numbers and while growth was achieved across many emerging regions the current suspension of a number of key education projects in territories such as Mexico and Indonesia casts doubt on the prospect of year-on-year growth for full calendar year 2012 volumes.

Futuresource Research: EMEA

In the EMEA region, Western Europe posted a regional total of 304K units, 15 percent down on CYQ3 2011, the shortfall in demand coming from the entry level data projector and the home cinema segments which achieved good volumes in CYQ2 2012 prior to the start of the European Football Championships. However, promotional stock left in the channel after the close of the championships negatively impacted demand with the greatest decline in volumes seen in Germany. The MEA region posted a strong result this quarter with reportedly good sales across a number of surrounding territories including Iran being serviced by distribution partners based out of the UAE. Turkey which had seen a drastic decline in volumes going to the education business in the first half of the year, after the announcement and administration of phase one of the Fatih tender for interactive flat panels, posted a strong quarter at 29.1K units. Increased demand coming from the private school sector where both Smart and Promethean won sizeable deals to supply IWB and some smaller education tenders in the public sector. Russia once again posted good year-on-year growth of 40 percent with a total volume of 77.5K units after strong demand in the education sector across a number of regions, strong demand from the education business is expected to continue through CYQ3 2012.

Futuresource Research: Americas

In the Americas region the USA posted a quarterly total of 375K units a year-on-year decline of 7.1 percent, feedback from the market suggests a relatively flat education season that was not as poor as expected earlier in the year, but considerably down on volumes seen in previous years. The HDT project in Mexico’s primary schools remains a question mark. The project which plans to install up to 165,000 classrooms with projectors and IWB’s has, as yet, failed to gain the support of the incoming government. Meetings to discuss the future of the project are scheduled for the first two weeks of November. Brazil continued to offer good run rate and regional tender opportunities, while the 2nd and 3rd rounds of MEC projects, tenders totaling a possible 200K have been postponed until next year.

Futuresource Research: Asia Pacific

In the Asia Pacific region, after a strong start to the year China posts a solid quarter at 515K units to achieve YTD growth of 5.5 percent on the period CYQ1-3 2011, China remains the #1 global market. The impact on Japanese vendors of the continuing political dispute between Japan and China will be an interesting development to watch. Growth in short throw projection is once again seen in China with short throw units accounting for 21 percent of all volumes shipped, sizeable growth on CYQ3 2011 where short throw projection accounted for 13 percent of total volume. In Indonesia, allegations of corruption made against Ministry of Education officials has reportedly led to the suspension of funding, at a central level, for the governments ambitious plans to equip 75 percent of classrooms with a projector by 2014. The project continues in some regions with smaller scale installations being tendered at a district level.