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posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 27 2018, @05:35AM   Printer-friendly
from the cheaper-apple? dept.

Apple is ready to fight Google's Chromebooks with cheaper iPads

Apple has a big problem. Just five years ago, its iPads and Mac laptops reigned supreme in US classrooms, accounting for half of all mobile devices shipped to schools in 2013. Apple has now slipped behind both Google and Microsoft in US schools with Google's Chromebooks leading the way in classrooms, securing nearly 60 percent of shipments in the US as overall iPad sales declined for three straight years. Apple is now ready to strike back against Chromebooks with some cheaper iPads.

Apple is holding a special education-focused event on Tuesday that promises "creative new ideas for teachers and students." Rumors suggest Apple is preparing to launch a $259 budget iPad model this year, while Bloomberg reports that a "low-cost iPad" will be announced alongside new education software. The new iPad could even support a stylus, like the Apple Pencil found on the more expensive iPad Pro models.

The article notes a cancelled $1 billion program to give iPads to students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Administering the iPads back then wasn't easy, but Chromebooks store their data in the cloud. If a student forgets their Chromebook at home, they can log in to another device using their Google account. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized Google's G Suite for Education for storing students' personal information in the cloud without their knowledge or consent.

Related: L.A.'s iPad-Friendly School Superintendent Resigns Under a Cloud
Los Angeles Schools Halve Email Retention after Scandal
Los Angeles Schools iPad Program Target of Federal Criminal Probe
NH School District: One Chromebook Per Student by 2018; Paper Textbooks Going


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27 2018, @08:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27 2018, @08:19PM (#659135)

    Hell, a freer "public" sector (via charter schools) does a better job.

    I think you are failing to appreciate 2 things:

    • The public school system puts an enormous amount of resources behind resisting change, especially change that would hold the employees more accountable. FFS, public school teachers automatically receive "tenure" after 2 years of just doing their basic job.

    • It's really hard to compete with a violently imposed monopoly; you yourself have to fund the very people with whom you're competing.