Google is starting to expand availability of the Jamboard throughout Europe, in what seems to be the first real sign that the company is having some success with its digital whiteboard.
The Jamboard launched last May in the US and Canada, then expanded to the UK in September. Now, Google is announcing that it’ll launch the Jamboard in France, Spain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and the Netherlands next month. The fact that, almost a year on, Google is continuing to roll out the product suggests it’s doing well in the few regions where it’s been available.
The Jamboard is still for businesses only, and it’s still very expensive
As it expands to more of Europe, the Jamboard is getting one new feature to go along with it: something called AutoDraw, which attempts to transform your terrible drawings into clip art of whatever it is you’re trying to sketch. It’s a nice idea that could save bad drawers from embarrassment (assuming the Jamboard is actually able to detect what you’re drawing).
The goal with the Jamboard remains the same as ever, though: it’s still offered only to business customers as a way to help teams collaborate by syncing whiteboard drawings across multiple boards, apps, and locations, and it’s still really expensive. The Jamboard itself costs $4,999, a stand for it costs an additional $1,349, and there’s an additional $600-per-year service fee for every individual unit.
In addition to expanding the Jamboard’s availability, Google is also expanding its audio conferencing system to Denmark and the Netherlands, bringing it to 14 countries total. It’s also launching two additional options: a camera with better zoom and an individual speaker-mic, so customers can chain multiple units together. The changes are meant to let the hardware work in bigger conference rooms.