“It’s back to the drawing board for Henrico County’s School Board, which voted last night to request proposals for a computer vendor to supply laptops to the county’s middle schools,” Olympia Meola reports for The Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Superintendent Fred Morton IV said he hopes to have a decision by the end of January to give school staff adequate prep time before the new school year.”
Meola reports, “Middle school students and teachers use school-issued Apple iBooks, but a contract for the majority of the machines expires in June. High school teachers and students also used iBooks before Dell defeated Apple this year with a four-year, $17.9 million contract to continue the program. At the same time, Dell made an offer of about 14,000 laptops for the middle schools at $20 less, or $1,111 per unit. In a work session this month, the board weighed pros and cons of taking Dell’s offer. On one hand, high school students just began using Dell laptops this school year and some board members think too little time has passed to make a decision about using them in the middle schools.”
Full article here.
Advertisement: iBook G4. Live Wirelessly. Spend Wisely. With Mac OS X Tiger. From $999. Free shipping.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Henrico to decide whether to ditch Apple iBooks for Dell laptops in middle schools – October 10, 2005
Henrico students ‘excited’ to have Dells after four years with ‘hated’ Apple iBooks – September 24, 2005
Dell VP on Henrico’s switch from Mac OS X iBooks with to Windows XP Dells: ‘a computer’s a computer’ – September 22, 2005
After dropping Macs, Henrico officials work to protect students’ new Dells from viruses – August 30, 2005
Woman wets herself to keep place in line for $50 Apple iBooks – August 16, 2005
Apple continues to lead in customer satisfaction, Dell loses more ground – August 16, 2005
Henrico citizens stampede for $50 Apple iBooks – August 16, 2005
Henrico closes $50 Apple iBook sale to general public; only Henrico residents can buy – August 03, 2005
Henrico moves $50 Apple iBook sale to Richmond International Raceway due overwhelming demand – July 28, 2005
Apple announces 30,000 iBooks deal with Florida’s Broward County Public Schools – July 27, 2005
Henrico residents object to public sale of Apple iBooks – July 26, 2005
Henrico County Public Schools to sell Apple 12-inch iBooks for $50 each on August 9th – July 25, 2005
Henrico blasted for choosing Dell laptops with Windows XP over Apple iBooks with Mac OS X Tiger – May 09, 2005
Henrico school officials on Apple to Dell switch: The logo will change, but the tool is the same – April 30, 2005
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
Henrico County Apple iBook plan in jeopardy? – April 02, 2005
Survey shows support for Henrico iBook program with ‘lukewarm support’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – March 07, 2005
Henrico poll finds students are using iBooks successfully – February 11, 2005
Henrico iBooks raise concerns among some parents – May 28, 2004
Henrico high school laptop program to continue, but will it still feature Apple Macs? – February 24, 2005
More schools experience Windows virus, worm problems while Macs just keep working – August 22, 2003
A tale of two school systems: Windows schools crippled while Mac schools unaffected – August 21, 2003
Good Grief!!!!
Let’s see if they can do it again, only this time dumber,
Magic Word “let”
I think the Henrico administration all take the short bus to work.
It’s clear that the Henrico school district has made fools of themselves on numerous occasions. They clearly misunderstood the value of ibooks when they chose to sell them for $50 leading to the now infamous frenzy. The remarkable thing that keeps going unmentioned is that they (like some companies) fail to understand Total Cost of Ownership. What do they pay their tech support people? Overtime costs and the investment in antispyware, virus software, and other tech support would easily wipe out any savings they might get by Dell’s lowball pricing over the full life of the system. The number? $280,000 in pure computer cost. The $20 per unit less they quote does NOT include the extra software needed to protect them. So…if you ADD that at around $30 per unit and factor in the weak software bundle that comes with the Dell laptops Henrico is paying MORE!
Why can’t someone on the school board figure this out?
How many Herico County School Board members does it take to change a lightbulb?
Answer: none, they just sit there in the dark like aa bunch of idiots.
When Apple was making their prposal, surely they made the school board aware of all the add-ons –spyware, malware–cost of IT people, etc. etc. If they didn’t, then they didn’t deserve the contract.
It’s called “Selling”. Do you see ANY ads “Selling” Macs?
SB–proposal.
The issue should be simple, how many dollars are spent for the Dell laptop program. What’s the projected budget of the entire program, how many students — you then get the Total Cost per Pupil. Compare that to the iBook program budget and costs.
Unless Henrico gets insane software discounts, I can’t imagine the costs are comparable.
Holy politics Batman!!
Yikes!
You can’t write stuff like this for a sitcom, TV drama series or the movies — it just wouldn’t be believable!
(“Henrico II — Just when you thought they would have learned something”).
Sheesh —
“and some board members think too little time has passed to make a decision about using them in the middle schools.”
What’s to think about? Get Macs!
MDN Magic Word: Clear — as in They are just not thinking clear enough — to steer clear enough away from Windoze.
Unbelievable and scary.
DG
It would be good for Apple to make the sale if only for P R reasons. However I doubt Apple makes any money out of this deal since the support for this and additional hardware is likely to be high.
/
well for the dell’s they already have their software. They can just copy it onto all of the computers…
/sarcasm
The problem with making a presentation like this is that some of it is based on speculation. How can Apple “know” what the projected amount of down time and IT support the Dells will need? One of the bases for the comment that “not enough time has passed” is that they are without question encountering extra tech support problems with the Dells in that environment (high school)…and might wonder if it will get better (it won’t). Anything that Apple says to convince them of this will come off as hype. There are case studies out there that convincingly demonstrate the total cost of ownership for the Mac is lower (in some cases MUCH lower) but it must be remembered that Windows DOES dominate the business world and is on over 90% of people’s desks. If you grew up in a home with Windows where it was a ‘minimal use’ home and tried to use a Mac it would seem very odd to you and any personal quirks you might have about using the two
systems would be percieved as an annoyance (What? I can’t resize my windows from the side!?)…so it’s worth noting that Apple has to overcome not only the inertia in people’s habits, but a large number of myths about the Mac. It’s a tough, tough job. Still…Henrico’s School Board is largely clueless as to the real issues here. These are EDUCATORS?
Don’t forget to act like little babies and write to everyone involved slinging insults.
Calm, well-written, logic and facts are not what are needed. Flames will get the job done! Flames ALWAYS impress decision-makers and press alike!
You are all missing the big picture. In a year or two this Henrico switch to Dells is going to sell a lot of Apple iBooks when the real difference in TCO at Henrico is shown to all other schools. Henrico’s stupidity will be a lesson for all other districts.
I say to let them have Dells they they will appreciate Macs when and if they ever grow up.
I’m more concerned about these throwbacks contaminating other gene pools.
Is there anyway we can cordon off the area where they graze?
Why don’t they ask the people who used the iBooks if they felt it was an asset or not? The teachers and students should be the one answering the question if Apple’s iBook was an asset or not. Sure a cheaper computer is always available but will it be a tool that can be used or ignored? If Henrico really values the learning process then they shouldn’t base there answer on just cost. You want to save money buy a portable typewriter which is cheaper then any computer if cost is all they care about. Dells are only $20 cheaper and yet the reliability would be minus 20 times that with spyware,viruses, and Dells hardware record which is lower than Apple’s on reliability.
Stop beating a dead horse.
Remember, school board members anywhere, not just in Henrico Co., are not educators. They are public officials whose job it is to run the school system—badly, it would seem, in Henrico—but they are not educators.
What should be included in the costing is the projected market value price of the used computer three years hence, so where the initial cost is A, the recovery is B, and the value for comprison, C is A – B. Of course, this may be too difficult for board members, but I will bet they won’t factor the projected market value into their arithmetic. Maybe they sold off the Macs for only $50 because they didn’t want people to think that basing their decision on the $20 difference in initial cost for Dells vs. Macs was excessively (more than usually) stupid.
We shall see if their is a mad rush to buy the Dells at $50. Compare the line-ups and number of fights to see which is the better value.
They should allow both Windows and Mac OS in the same classes (50% each) then see how the students perform, after all this is about the students, right?
Well, the score stands at (1) Woman pisses in pants in line to get an iBook.
We shall see how the Dell latops do in a few years.
To “PR”
You said, “These are EDUCATORS?” The answer is, “no.” Noneof t he need be educators. They were *voted* onto the School Board. I’ve sen board elections hinge on — what the candidate says abou thte football team. The real national shame is that these boards have little to nothing to do with education.