Apple and Education

I have been hearing quite a bit of talk about how Apple has lost the education market. I wonder if Apple has left the education market or the market has left Apple? (Am I splitting hairs?)

If we take a minute to look back at the times when “experts” would say that Apple owned the education market we might have a different view of the current circumstances. I don’t believe that Apple was ever the lowest priced option for the education market during this time in history. I do believe they were the best option. (Note: I still believe this to be true.) In addition, there was generally a one per class computing device and not a one-to-one as we see today so price was not the driving factor.

Now we hear that Google is taking over the education market with the Chrome Books. I cannot deny these numbers. However, it almost feels like Google is winning by default. No other device manufacturer has seen the benefit of the race to the bottom price on what amounts to a throw away device. Now we hammer Apple for failing to participate in the education market.

One of the driving forces of the education market was to get people to purchase the same or similar product as they finished their education and joined the work force. I don’t see that as a bridge market in today’s world. In my experience no one is using Chrome Books in their profession whether they purchase for themselves or the company purchases for their position.

To be fair, Google has done some very nice work in the Google Classroom environment that (although I have no direct experience) seems to be far ahead of the competition.

I don’t particularly like Google and their push into the education market has just allowed them to further their data collection efforts to a far younger set of individuals. I guess I just don’t trust them to use that data appropriately.

I understand Apple is having and Education Event on March 27th so maybe we will see a change. I may update this post if the event warrants.