Apple Lands Another US$3.2 Million School Deal For 1,970 iBooks

by , 12:00 PM EDT, October 3rd, 2003

Another one of Fred Anderson's "more than a hundred" unpublicized one-on-one school deals has come to light. Mr. Anderson said that Apple had signed more than 100 such deals, also saying they would not be publicized by Apple, at the 2003 Technology Conference in September. Since that time, several of these deals have been coming to light, mainly through newspaper accounts from local newspapers.

Another such deal comes to us today from The Daily Reflector, a newspaper from Greenville, North Carolina. According to the paper, the Green County school district has signed a US$3.2 million deal to provide all of the county's 6-12 graders an iBook. That's some 1,800 iBooks, plus another 170 that will go to teachers. The deal is structured as a four year lease to the school system, and is worth some US$3.2 million. Green County is a self-described rural area, one of the first such rural areas to embrace a one-on-one iBook deal with Apple. From the paper:

Tim Cook, executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations for Apple Computers, visiting Thursday with Greene County officials and school board members, said the iBook laptops should be distributed by the middle of the month.

Through a four-year lease agreement between Apple Computers and Greene County schools, about 1,800 students and 170 teachers will receive the computers. Piloted in Henrico County, Va., the program in Greene County is the first countywide iTech program in North Carolina, officials said.

[...]

Apple executives are hoping Greene County’s pilot program will have a ripple effect on other rural communities, Cook said. He commended the county's government and school leaders for having the "community resolve" to make a change.

"Collectively, you will make a difference," Cook said. "You are one of the few, one of the first to make an enormous difference. I look forward to seeing the results, not only in eastern North Carolina, but the nation at large."

There's more information in the full article at The Daily Reflector.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This could be a very important deal for Apple. Rural communities often don't have the financing for computers, and that is simply because of property values. If Green County's program can show some definitive improvement in academic achievement for students, it will show other rural communities there is a tool to help them compete with the cities. That, in turn, could mean that other such communities will find ways to fund their own laptop initiatives.

Mind you, this still has to be proved. So far, the evidence from Henrico County, Virginia, and the state of Maine suggest that notebooks do help students, but there has been nothing conclusive published on the issue as of yet. Time will tell on that issue, but we wish Green County well in its efforts.

Clearly Apple has indeed struck on a manner for the company to compete with Dell in education. While Dell has gone for the El Cheapo route to selling computers to schools, Apple's approach as a solutions provider of one-on-one iBook deals is proving to be a good one. It is also an obvious part of why Apple's education market share increased for the first time in years during the June quarter.

We look forward to seeing the education numbers from the September quarter, as well.

The Daily Reflector Article