“The only state to provide laptops to public school students statewide said Thursday the contract it’s negotiating for new devices can be used by other states if they’re interested in following suit,” David Sharp reports for The Associated Press. “Maine has zeroed in on five different laptops and tablets as it prepares to replace more than 35,000 Apple laptops in middle schools and about the same number in high schools this fall. The state expects to pay between $217 and $314 annually per unit depending on which device is chosen.”
“By leveraging additional buying power, the number of companies offering bids for devices to be distributed this fall increased eight-fold compared to the last time the state put out a request,” Sharp reports. “Maine, Vermont and Hawaii selected five bids out of 16 that were offered: four-year leases with annual costs of $217 for an iPad, $273 for the MacBook Air, $254.86 for an HP Probook, $314.28 for an HP ElitePad, and $294 for a CTL 2go Classmate PC with swivel screen and stylus. That would be the cost for a state-run program, others could be more costly.”
Sharp reports, “Back in 2000, then-Maine Gov. Angus King said that providing laptops to all students, regardless of means, would help eliminate the so-called ‘digital divide’ between rich and poor kids. In 2002 and 2003, more than 30,000 laptops had been distributed to seventh- and eighth-graders and to 3,000 teachers in Maine. Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs wanted so badly to be part of the program that the company took a loss on the contract, King said.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Maine kindergartners to get Apple iPad 2 units this fall – April 8, 2011
Maine widens notebook computer to high schools; begins rollout of 67,000 Apple MacBooks – September 4, 2009
Maine to more than double its Apple MacBook program to 100,000 students – March 12, 2009
Maine inks deal with Apple for 36,000 iBook G4 notebooks for students and teachers – June 29, 2006
Maine schools offered chance to buy over 30,000 Apple iBooks for $48 each – April 28, 2006
State of Maine awards middle school contract to Apple Computer for 34,000 iBooks – March 21, 2006
Maine looks to continue statewide 34,000 Apple iBooks in middle schools program – December 28, 2005
Should Maine’s 38,000 Apple iBooks in schools program be renewed? – October 10, 2005
Three dozen Maine high schools prep Apple laptops for students and teachers – November 16, 2004
Long-term cost of Maine’s Apple iBooks for public schools estimated at $28 million per year – August 11, 2004
Maine orders up 6,000 Apple iBooks for public high schools – August 06, 2004
Maine state officials work with Apple to expand laptop program into high schools – June 12, 2004
Maine’s Thornton Academy to start multimillion dollar Apple laptop program – March 20, 2004
Maine Governor looks to expand state’s Apple iBook program into high schools – January 22, 2004
Maine’s Apple iBook program draws international attention – March 11, 2003
iBook program nets $400,000,000 software grant for Maine – November 07, 2002
What Apple brings to the educational world, no other company can.
(plus) 1 googolplex
And the Apple devices are less expensive, by far, than the the HP crap.
Gee, a forward thinking state. I wonder how they voted in the last election?
Which states mostly use Windows machines? How do they vote? What is the educational rating of those states?
I would love to see the answers to those questions. Without nasty political remarks.
As Maine goes, so goes the nation.
Correlation does not indicate causality.
Absolutely! I think that the approach to life and the values in life are demonstrated by certain actions like what products you buy and how you educate your young or how much you value teachers.
Maine has voted liberal in the Presidential election for many election cycles now. Angus King, by the way, is an Independent and was recently elected as a Senator. The choice of Macs was less about the State of Maine, and more about the Governor.
I thought the choice of Macs had to do with the general acceptance of the platform by the population and that the government went along with the crowd. There are US maps and charts that show the use of Macs state by state. They are correlated to the voting patterns also. I half expected someone to search it out and post it.
If Maine mixes the “laptop” brands I hope they become aware of the TOC and go straight Apple next time.
TCO = Total Cost of Ownership.
TOC = Table of Contents
The fix is in.
TOC Total Ownership Cost
(Total Cost of Ownership is too many letters, and TCOO just Too Cute. But it’s just great that we tend to everyone else’s tipos.)
Try again, unfortunately the industry has spoken and the accepted acronym for total cost of ownership is TCO.
It is also well accepted that TOC means table of contents.
Mistaken is such a cold, dismissive term. Industry may have spoken to you, but have you no compassion for the US Navy?
http://www.onr.navy.mil/About-ONR/science-technology-strategic-plan/Total-Ownership-Cost.aspx
or the Coast Guard?
Click to access CIM_4140_1.pdf
As for TOC, accepted by whom? It stands for just about anything in the military (Tactical Operations Center, Transfer of Command, Transfer Of Custody).
Then there are are those tight little groups in cities and towns everywhere, chatting up the great broadway hits, knowing TOC only as a play by Neil Simon, or infamous Henry Miller novels (TOC north and south), or old radio, for which there is the show and the city once named Hot Springs, both TOC.
One could add Greek Catholics, historians, and so many other good people for which TOC hardly needs to be explained. Table of Contents, indeed!
Looks like it will be iPads only from what we are hearing from the MLTI program
As well it should be. The era of the cd-rom is over, no need for a computer, it is a waste of money and resource, frankly the iPad is enough fort 99% of school use.
Most of the content is in the cloud or on an app. A few beefy machines for heavy multimedia creation projects and iPads for day to day classroom use is all you need.
My school is an Apple distinguished school because of our 1:1 and 2:1 programs, we are moving away from the 2:1 in favor of a 1:1 with iPads. We are adding Zagg Keyboard cases for the longer writing assignments, the students really appreciate the keyboard addition.