Apple execs, Turkish president in talks to supply 15 million students with iPads in $4.5 billion deal

“Apple is reportedly in talks with Turkish officials regarding a $4.5 billion deal to supply its tablet to the nation’s 15 million students,” Trevor Mogg reports for Digital Trends.

“With so much attention given to Apple’s expansion plans in China, it’s sometimes easy to forget that the company which brought us the iPhone and iPad would actually very much like to dominate the mobile market of not just Asia’s most populous nation, but of all countries on the planet,” Mogg reports. “As part of this push, the company is apparently in the midst of trying to secure a deal to supply Turkey’s 15 million school children with tablets – a deal that could be worth as much as $4.5 billion.”

Read more in the full article here.

Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors, “Apple executives including vice president for education John Couch met with Turkish president Abdullah Gül today to discuss several issues… Also discussed was the layout of the older Turkish ‘F-keyboard’ on iOS devices, which has several keys located in the wrong positions.”

“Apple has been making a significant push in Turkey, launching the iTunes Store for music and movies there in December and hiring for future retail stores in the country,” Slivka reports.

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: You know, because Apple has no room left for growth.

Related articles:
Man reportedly trademarks ‘Steve Jobs’ in Turkey – February 2, 2013
Apple launches iTunes Store in Russia, Turkey, India, South Africa and 52 additional countries today – December 12, 2012

27 Comments

    1. Q. Did you hear the one about the Curds who were eating their curds & whey?
      A. No!
      A. They played cards whilst eating their curds & whey because they thought that that is what Curds do!!

      Ps, they did not crumble when they heard this joke!!!

    1. Unless there is an upresedented goal to sink the world economy as we know it.

      1. Tank the world economy, reward incompetence, punish success
      2. Starvation ensues, many people die
      3. Reduction in the consumption of resources
      4. Who is ever leftover, survive on scrap resources and humanity lives on
      5. The Hunger Games commence

      There’s no balance, just one extreme to the next.

    2. The sad part … It is happening in every part of our lives … The better you do , the more attacks … the applause and excellent reviews go to the ones who barely perform ….

    1. Wrong way to do the math, though understandably easy. There’d be a whole lot of supporting material going into that, perhaps wireless, perhaps AppleTVs, professional services, configuration and mobile device management servers… My bet is on iPad mini.

    2. According to what I read, the Turkish president personally asked Tim Cook about the keyboard when he was on visit last year in Cupertino. Tim Cook promised him to look into that. 9 months later nothing has happened… Apple’s international teams are very often second rate, and the state of several of their international iOS keyboard is a testament to that.

  1. I recall reading that Turkey was tying the tablet purchase to some sort of domestic production requirements. They don’t want to just ship $4.5B overseas to buy hardware. I’m guessing it’s a pretty complicated deal. Lucky the US got some domestic production crumbs before Turkey came along. We only spend $40 or 50 Billion a year.

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