Business opportunities Value-adds for classroom touchscreen solutions


It comes as no surprise that the two most successful brands in education iFPDs offer substantial added value to their hardware products in terms of software and con- tent. The lack of available funds, in the hands of teach- ers,


has been a notorious


bone of contention for years, with neither of the two mar- ket-leaders, Clevertouch and Promethean, feeling able to change for individual teach- ers’ digital resources. Rob Xenos, Software Devel- opment Manager at the Clev- erstore App


store explains Chart 1 – The LCD EMEA display market Source: Futuresource)


that: “Cleverstore (available on the Clevertouch Plus Se- ries) is 100% free to teach- ers. This is because teachers just don’t have access to credit cards to buy apps”. Rob was tasked to build the Cleverstore in 2014, when Clevertouch noticed a gap in the market to bring edu- cational apps, that you see on tablets,


to interactive


touchscreens as a teaching aid. “We conducted research and saw that teachers were actually using apps on a tab- let and casting them to the screen to show pupils – not a very great way to do things.” At the time, explains Rob, this was a radical step, as Clevertouch was the first iFPD brand to develop its own Appstore: “After much research on how to go about making your own app store, and looking at various ‘white label’ app stores, we started a collaboration with a 3rd party


company, who could build us a completely bespoke solution so we could control the content.” “Cleverstore is now into its 4th year of development and we have close to half a mil- lion app downloads across the world.” But how does Rob de- cide which Apps to include in Cleverstore? “We select apps based on the following factors - Demand – are we being asked for this by teachers? Compati- bility – some apps are great on a tablet, but don’t really trans- late into a good large format user experience. Suitability – some apps, although may be fun and engaging aren’t actual- ly very suitable to be broadcast to a room full of children and may contain unsuitable adver- tising content.”


There are of course some technical issues that have to be addressed before an App can be added to Cleverstore. as effectively Clevertouch is en- dorsing the product of a third party: “When we talk to a de- veloper, and agree to conduct testing, we conduct a thorough test of the App to make sure it works on every Cleverstore compatible screen. We make sure that Apps collect no data, are cleansed of any advertising, are full blown apps that contain no additional content to be pur- chased.”


What about the developer’s commitment to longer support and updating of the App con- tent? Rob says: “There are var- ious bodies that offer seals of approval for safety for kids. We are very strict with our content


and are constantly reviewing apps and suitability for the classroom. We maintain a de- veloper portal where develop- ers can upload the latest ver- sions of their Apps directly, to make sure that an App is up to date.” And how about cur- riculum changes? “We only work with App developers who make educational Apps, who are always creating new Apps or


updating existing ones.


Some Apps fall outside the curriculum to cater for early years learning and develop- ment.”


For applications in second- ary schools and above? Is there a case for using any- thing other than industry standard apps in higher edu- cation (GSuite, 365 etc)? Rob explains that use of industry standard applications can present issues: “Just because a large format touchscreen runs the Android operating system dos not mean that it has access to GMS (Google Mobile Services) - a collec- tion of Google applications and APIs that help support functionality across devices. Google doesn’t grant these licenses for large format dis- plays. We have seen some interactive displays that are side loading Google Services, and this is a clear breach of Google’s policies. That is why Clevertouch curates its own app store. There is no legal access to the google play store.”


Chart 2 – Sales of interactive touchscreens by sector (Source: Futuresource)


Chart 3 – Evolution of the corporate interactive touchscreen (Source: Futuresource)


Rob Xenos, Software Development Manager at Clevertouch: “Cleverstore is now into its 4th year of development and we have close to half a million app downloads across the world.”


AV News November 2018 P15


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