“Five years ago, Apple appeared to own the education market,” Shara Tibken writes for CNET. “Its iPad was selling like crazy, and Apple partnered with major publishers to digitize their textbooks. Many schools bought the tablet… Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing, noted that ‘education is in Apple’s DNA’ …Then everything fell apart.”
“Fast-forward to today. Apple’s iPad sales fell for 13 quarters in a row before finally edging up again in mid-2017. The company has had success pushing its Swift Playgrounds coding software in schools, but digital textbooks didn’t exactly revolutionize education,” Tibken writes. “At the same time, Google’s Chromebook has taken over the US education market, with nearly three out of every five machines used in schools running the Chrome operating system in 2017, according to researcher Futuresource Consulting.”
“Apple still needs to figure out where its iPads fit as its computers become even more portable and its smartphones get bigger. So it’s taking another shot at education. The company on Tuesday will host an event at 10 a.m. CT (8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET) at the Lane Tech College Prep High School on Chicago’s north side,” Tibken writes. “Despite all of Apple’s efforts, Google and its Chromebook momentum will be tough to slow down. Even if Apple drops iPad pricing further, makes the Apple Pencil cheaper and introduces other changes, it could be hard to convince some schools to give its products another try. That’s especially true as teachers and students become more used to the Google technology they already have.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Tim Cook has many good qualities. But, in certain areas, an abundance of foresight doesn’t seem to be one of them.
When Apple lost Steve Jobs, they not only lost their drive for perfection*, they lost their crystal ball.
When you’ve sold yourself on the idea that the iPad is the future of personal computing by swallowing your own marketing hook, line, and sinker, and then fail to deliver on that promise for too long (skimping on RAM, offering underpowered multitasking, etc. – now, finally, largely corrected with iPad Pro), you neglect the horse that brung ya (Macintosh is his name) and shoot yourself in the foot (Q216 results, Mac sales unable to make up for the continued iPad sales decline, and Mac’s streak of outgrowing the PC market shattered)… A big picture revision and course correction would be well advised. — MacDailyNews, April 28, 2016
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U.S. public schools are cheap, underfunded, and/or extremely shortsighted. There’s nothing at all new about that, unfortunately. — MacDailyNews, December 23, 2015
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Good luck clawing back what’s been rapidly squandered, Mr. Cook. — MacDailyNews, March 22, 2017
*Never realized, but a crucial goal nonetheless. Steve Jobs’ drive for perfection was what set Apple apart. Without it, things inevitably begin to fall apart.
SEE ALSO:
Apple to host education event in Chicago on March 27th – March 16, 2018
Apple’s answer to cheap Chromebook test machines: The new $299 iPad, tailor-made for education – March 22, 2017
Apple is losing its grip on American classrooms to cheap Chromebooks – March 2, 2017
Google’s Chromebooks outsold Apple’s Macs in the U.S. for the first time – May 20, 2016
Why iPads are losing to Chromebooks in education, and what Apple needs to do about it – January 13, 2016
Should Apple make a ‘CloudBook’ for the education market? – January 12, 2016
Can education give Apple’s iPad a much-needed sales boost? – January 12, 2016
Apple delivers multi-user support for iPad – in schools only – January 11, 2016
Apple loses more ground to Google’s Chromebook in U.S. education market – January 11, 2016
Why Apple devices are losing share to Chromebooks in U.S. public schools – December 23, 2015
Apple CEO Cook on Google Chromebooks in U.S. schools: We’re not interested in making ‘test machines’ – December 11, 2015
Apple pivoting iPad education strategy to regain its footing in face of Google Chromebook surge – December 5, 2014
