Should Apple make a ‘CloudBook’ for the education market?
“According to FutureSource Consulting, Google’s Chromebooks achieved 51% share in the [U.S.] K-12 educational market,” Mark Reschke writes for T-GAAP. “Historically, Apple has long been the market leader in educational sales — which may have been a key factor in surviving Apple’s 1990’s collapse as school districts were reluctant to leave the Mac platform. ”
“Say what you will about Unions and school districts spending every dime they get, budgets for technology are simply squeezed, and Apple is feeling the blow,” Reschke writes. “Google’s Chromebooks offer a near 100% cloud-based experience, for dirt-cheap hardware prices. Chromebooks are not for music or video editing classes, but it would be silly to suggest Google does not have their eyes on a larger desktop prize.”
“Apple’s iCloud is a robust solution, that can provide the educational market with everything the K-12 space needs. Storage, office document capability, and seamless integration with OS X Macs and iOS devices,” Reschke writes. “If Apple were to create a CloudBook — void of a traditional hard drive, running an A8 processor, with direct tie-in to iCloud — it could very well be a ChromeBook killer.”
Apple’s eMacMacDailyNews Take: Bring back the eMac!
Seriously, there is no easy answer for a company dedicated to quality to compete in a market that’s hellbent on shortsightedly wasting taxpayers’ money on cheap, shitty junk.
