Apple, Google compete to get iPad and Chrome tablets into schools
Apple and Google are competing fiercely to colonise the education market, with Apple announcing a new iPad.
Apple and Google are competing fiercely to colonise the education market, with Apple overnight announcing a new iPad and education software.
Apple announced a new 9.7-inch iPad which will sell in schools in Australia for $439 — $30 less than the public price which remains at $469 for a unit with 32GB of storage, or $669 with Wi-Fi and a SIM connection.
A model with 128GB storage costs $599, with Wi-Fi and a SIM connection it is $799.
The important development is that the 9.7-inch iPad now supports Apple Pencil, which makes it suitable for drawing and sketching in a school environment.
But you’ll need to buy Apple Pencil separately: it costs $145.
The education market is a lucrative space for the global computer giants. They can pick up large volume sales from schools who order 100s of devices at a time. At the same time, Google and Apple can familiarise tomorrow’s consumers with their brand of technology.
But Apple is having to work especially hard to counter Google’s aggressive marketing.
It’s around four years since Google moved into the teacher administration space with a web service called Google Classroom, which helps teachers distribute and grade assignments digitally. It lets teachers and students connect both within schools and outside.
Like many things that Google provides, it’s free and convenient, but it’s candy for financially lucrative sales.
Apple responded today with new classroom administration software of its own called Classbook, an app that lets teachers create assignments and monitor student progress on an iPad or Mac.
Teachers can launch apps, books and web pages on all student devices at once, send and receive documents, view student screens during class, assign shared iPads to specific students and reset a student’s password. The Mac version of the app will be available in Beta in June.
Classbook complements Apple’s existing Classroom app which integrates the iPad into the classroom environment.
The Apple Pencil comes into play through a new Apple curriculum called Everyone Can Create which can integrate drawing, music, filmmaking and photography into lesson plans.
Teachers and students additionally get 200GB of free cloud storage.
Google and other manufacturers have offered schools cheaper alternatives to the more expensive iPad, but with Apple’s announcement, its rivals are stepping up to the challenge.
Apple gave the announcement some flair by holding it at the largest public high school in Chicago.
Yesterday we saw the announcement of the first Google tablet computer to use the Chrome operating system. Made by Taiwan firm Acer, the Acer Chromebook Tab 10 reportedly starts at $US329 and, unlike the new iPad, the price includes a stylus.
Australian pricing and availability is yet to be announced.
Apple’s event was designed to help it catch Google which has enjoyed enormous success in schools.
The United Federation of Teachers in the US reports that more than half of primary and secondary students in the US nationwide use at least one Google product.
Google has gone to lengths to address parents’ privacy concerns but nonetheless that issue remains. Both Apple and Google will be having to address the issue of security of students’ work held in the cloud.
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