“Rumors about Apple building a very large iPad have been unavoidable for seven months. But does a giant iPad make sense?” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld. “Earlier this week, DigiTimes, a Taiwanese trade newspaper for the Taiwanese and Chinese electronics industries, reported that October 2014 is the target launch timeframe for a 12.9-in. iPad ‘targeting North America’s educational market.’ (Note that DigiTimes rumors and predictions are often wrong.) Still, an October release makes sense for an education market product, as many U.S. school budgets are typically finalized in January or February. What doesn’t make sense is this: Why would Apple target its largest tablet at people with the tiniest hands — schoolchildren?”
“In interviews I’ve conducted with teachers and other educators about classroom technology, the issue that keeps coming up (and one universally ignored by the tech press) is that sending kids out the school-house door with expensive electronics like iPads is irresponsible in the extreme — it makes children targets for mugging and theft,” Elgan writes. “I find it very hard to believe that schools would buy 12.9-in. near-4K quality tablets and let kids take them home in their backpacks. That’s why a 12.9-in. iPad for the education market makes sense only if it’s designed to be used in the classroom exclusively, essentially as a desktop computer.”
Elgan writes, “It seems likely to me that Apple will ship a 12.9-in. iPad designed for desktop use for the education market, but display it in Apple stores for at least a year to create demand before coming out with even bigger models for consumers.”
Read more in the full article here.
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