SMART wins prestigious China Industry Design Competition
SMART Board 600 series interactive whiteboard awarded best overall design and best user functionality
CALGARY, Alberta --- February 24, 2006 --- SMART Technologies Inc. announces that the SMART Board™ 600 series interactive whiteboard has won two awards in the prestigious China Industry Design Competition. The 600 series won Best User Functionality and was named one of the 25 Best Overall Design Products. The China Industry Design Competition is sponsored by Global Entrepreneur magazine and the Illinois Institute of Technology. A panel of 40 industry experts evaluated more than 100 products from 35 companies participating in the competition, including SMART, Apple, Sony, BMW and Motorola. Winners were selected based on five criteria – innovation, functionality, appearance, market acceptance and environmental protection. SMART will be honored for its design achievements at the award ceremony tomorrow in Beijing.
As the industry pioneer and global market leader in interactive whiteboards, SMART recently launched the SMART Board 600 series interactive whiteboard. The sixth-generation series offers larger screen sizes, sophisticated styling, an easily accessible Help button, a hardware expansion slot and new accessories. The 600 series retains all the popular features that made the 500 series the favorite of educators for the last seven years: finger-touch control, the SMART Pen Tray and the award-winning whiteboarding software that is powerful yet easy to use.
“Since SMART shipped the world’s first interactive whiteboard in 1991, we’ve kept a sharp focus on designing an intuitive and feature-rich product in anticipation of evolving technical standards and in response to customer feedback,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s president and co-CEO. “This award from the China Industry Design Competition affirms the success of our ongoing efforts to deliver interactive whiteboards with superior functionality and usability.”
As a measure of product excellence, SMART Board interactive whiteboards continue to win high-profile industry awards and accolades, including the 2005 BETT Award for Best Secondary Hardware (UK), 2004 Worlddidac Award (international), 2003 Comenius Medal (Germany), 2003 Technology & Learning Award of Excellence and 2004 Legacy Award (United States), 2005 eSchool News Readers’ Choice Award – Best Interactive Whiteboard (United States) and the 2004 Association of Educational Publishers Distinguished Achievement Award (United States).
About SMART Board interactive whiteboards
The award-winning SMART Board interactive whiteboard is the most widely installed interactive whiteboard in the world. Simply by touching the large display, users can access and control any computer application or multimedia platform, including the Internet, CD-ROMs and DVDs. With SMART Board software, users can write over applications in digital ink and then edit, save, print or post their notes to a website for future reference. SMART Board interactive whiteboards are used in classrooms, briefing rooms and boardrooms around the world, helping people to collaborate effectively whether they are in the same room or in another location. Feature-rich software and intuitive functionality make the SMART Board interactive whiteboard the number one choice of educators, presenters and trainers in more than 75 countries. For more information, visit www.smarttech.com/smartboard.
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For more information, contact
Public Relations
SMART Technologies Inc.
1207 – 11 Avenue SW, Suite 300
Calgary, AB T3C 0M5
CANADA
+1.403.451.2142
pr@smarttech.com