“Apple Inc. said it acquired education-technology startup LearnSprout, which creates software for schools and teachers to track students’ performance,” Eric Newcomer and Adam Satariano report for Bloomberg.
“Apple is working on education tools for the iPad, which will allow students to see interactive lessons, track their progress, and share tablet computers with peers,” Newcomer and Satariano report. “More than 2,500 school districts in 42 U.S. states use LearnSprout’s software, according to the company’s website.”
Newcomer and Satariano report, “The San Francisco startup has raised more than $4 million from investors, including Andreessen Horowitz and Formation 8.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Looks like the ass-kicking Alphabet has been administering to Apple with Chromebooks in U.S. K-12 may have woken up some people in Cupertino.
SEE ALSO:
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
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Powerschool 2?
That’s exactly what I thought of!
So they’ve bought a company that is a web-based dashboard interface to a school’s information system to do analysis on student performance data. I guess Apple is going to go the route of supporting services available for non-Apple devices while biding their time with iOS focused tech for the K-12 market.
Shame it took them do long yo get the message, but then sadly it pretty much ties in with the lethargic attitude towards the iPad generally until recently sitting on past laurels for marketing rather than good technical reasons. That’s the sort of attitude that was Microsofts undoing so one might hope that the company that primarily took advantage of that lethargy might now eradicate such stale thinking from its own make up now it’s had this warning.
Unlike higher ed (where Apple is dominating), K-12 will always be more challenging for a quality company like Apple: the standards in K-12 education in the US are abysmal, it’s the lowest common denominator. We’ve seen this in LA and in other places. When contracts go out to bid, a school district is going to go with the *cheapest* offer, in every sense of the word.
Geez, you can get a Chromebook for $150 these days, Google is just following Microsoft’s race-to-the-bottom in throwing out junk to the masses. This fits perfectly with school districts like Los Angeles and elsewhere.
I would say this is one of the most disappointing aspects of Tim Cooks reign. I see no reason that there aren’t steep education discounts on the hardware, and big investments in software controls, that frankly, would make iPad even more attractive in the Corporate environment. Heck, when Apple was small and much less profitable Steve J. wanted to give computers to schools.
iPad’s a great educational tool that Apple simply didn’t develop and just let Googly move right in.