Staff at 2Touch’s North Shore office are celebrating what has been another successful year for the innovative New Zealand company. Not only has 2Touch managed to achieve significant growth in both the New Zealand and Australia markets, but is putting the finishing touches on multi-user software for their boards.
Based on Auckland’s North Shore, 2Touch is the brain child of entrepreneur Pablo Garcia. Described as an ‘interactive whiteboard’ 2Touch is the combination of optical touch technology and a standard whiteboard to create a 2.4m wide touch screen ideal for classrooms and boardrooms.
Since the first 2Touch was installed in February 2007 it’s been a kiwi success story. With over 70% of all boards exported to Australia, 2Touch has found itself as an emerging technological force in a market that has remained relatively unchanged for the past 10 years. 2Touch director, Pablo Garcia commented that 2Touch’s success is down to its unique selling points. “We’ve had an amazing year, specifically in Australia. It’s a mix of our technology and unique positioning that is setting us out from the rest”.
In terms of technological advancements, 2Touch possesses the ability for multiple users to be interacting with the board at once. With their in-house designed software, 2Touch Workbook, 2Touch is one of only a few IWBs that can support multi-users and, more specifically, without requiring extra pens. But it’s the arrival of Windows 7 and its multi-touch capabilities that has 2Touch most excited. The new platform enables developers to provide software which supports more effective collaborative, multi-user activities.
Mr Garcia sees a very bright future for 2Touch through the emergence of Windows 7 and the multi-user functionality: “As new investment in our classrooms accelerates, educators are re-examining the capabilities they need for improved teaching and learning practices. If we are really serious about directly involving our students in learning activities instead of teaching “at” them, then we will respond to the opportunity to become more student-centric, and to teach more collaboratively. This inevitably drives demand for multi-user capable technologies in our classrooms. Combining Windows 7 with our multi-touch capable IWB, we can at last fully harness 2Touch’s potential for enabling new collaborative teaching & learning practices in the classroom.”