Apple Beats Out Dell in $25M Georgia School iBook Deal; Office Part of Package
TMO Reports - Apple Beats Out Dell in $25M Georgia School iBook Deal; Office Part of Package
by , 9:45 AM EDT, May 2nd, 2005
Apple Computer beat out Dell, IBM and HP to win a US$25 million contract with the Cobb County, Ga. School District that will provide some 63,000 G4 iBooks to every student and teacher in the district within four years, the school system and Apple confirmed Monday. The deal also includes Microsoft Office for Mac on every laptop, The Mac Observer has been told.
Being called by Apple "one of the largest ever one-to-one computer learning initiatives" in the U.S., the contract calls for the initial deployment of 17,000 iBook to teachers and students at four pilot high schools. After training, the goal is to deploy the remaining 46,000 laptops to middle school students at other locations.
"The long term goal is to provide all our high school and middle school students with iBooks," Jay Dillon, Cobb County school Director of Communications, told TMO. "While we have an ambitious plan, we have no exact timeline for full implementation, but will begin later this month or in June with delivery of iBooks to teachers for their initial training."
Mr. Dillon said the decision to go with Apple came after a long process that included visits to a number of other U.S. school districts who also use Macintosh computers.
"This is a arduous and rigorous search," he said. "We looked at other school districts around the U.S. and we learned a lot from them. They had support issues and issues related to software and we learned how we could do things better from their experiences."
In the end, Mr. Dillon said Cobb County chose Apple because price, performance and their overall plan made the most sense.
"Apple's proposal was far and away the superior proposal," he commented. "Apple had the best package of hardware, software, training and support at the best price. We feel like Apple has a lot of experience nationwide in the education market. They've handled this type of large scale implementation before. We're confident in their ability to do this."
"We're thrilled to work with Cobb County public schools on this landmark one-to-one initiative," said Tim Cook, Apple's executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Operations, in a prepared statement. "School districts across the country have improved student achievement with the help of Apple's one-to-one solutions, and this ambitious project will give Cobb County students a tremendous academic advantage."
Office a major part of the deal
Microsoft Office for Mac was key to the Apple/Cobb County deal, according to Mr. Dillon.
"Office had to be part of the deal," Mr. Dillon said. "We learned from other school districts that Office was a key ingredient. It will be on every iBook."
Also preloaded on every laptop will be Apple's iLife suite, WorldBook encyclopedia, a graphing calculator, Apple's Safari Web browser, as well as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mr. Dillon confirmed.
Mr. Dillon said that while the program will be an aggressive one, the plan is to provide "ample time" for training of teachers first and then students. "We're going to take this one step at a time and their will be various evaluations along the way, with the help of teachers, students, parents and Apple."
Observer Comments
[Regis]
Is that your FINAL answer?
[/Regis]
Seriously, I thought last week was the final choice. Was I wrong or are they just changing their mind?
EDIT: Oh, wait. That one was in Virginia. Ok, so apparently this is the next big computer war, huh? The educational market?
Not good for Apple, I guess, since their success there means they have little to gain but a lot to lose.
QuoteSmall White Car wrote:
[Regis]
Is that your FINAL answer?
[/Regis]
Seriously, I thought last week was the final choice. Was I wrong or are they just changing their mind?
EDIT: Oh, wait. That one was in Virginia. Ok, so apparently this is the next big computer war, huh? The educational market?
Not good for Apple, I guess, since their success there means they have little to gain but a lot to lose.
My take on this is that there is no niche where one can rest on past glories. Appple needs to fight on as any other player to keep its market share. They seem to be in a good position to hold on a good presence in the education segment. I do have to admit that the news about the change of heart at the VA county that announced last week the 'switch' to Dell after having had the pilot program with Apple for (what?) 2 years had left me with some worries/questions. Let see how this one in GA will evolve (and of course monitor the one in NH).
Mon May 02, 2005 11:09 am Subject: OS X Tiger to the rescue
I think with its inherent security, compatibility with Wintel networks, the availability of MS Office for Mac, and the new integration of parental controls throughout the OS, Tiger promises to be the foot that Apple puts BACK in the door of Educational computing. Scratch that...It will be the foot that Apple uses to KICK IN the door, as long as they can try to be competitive on prices.
I'm slightly concerned that this district doesn't have a real plan of action. From the comments the guy made, it just appears that they are going to "wing it" and hope that it works. Throwing money Apple's way without a decent idea of how to implement their wonderful technology is a terrible idea and will lead to people hating Apple for no reason in the near future. I hope I'm wrong and it works out.
Did anybody else sense that in the statements or is it just me?
Andrew
QuoteGuest wrote:
EITHER WAY..SEEMS TO ME mICROSHAFT MAKES REVENUE!
eITHER THEY GET REVENUE ON xp OR ON oFFICE FOR mAC...WHICH SUCKS.
Other may disagree, but Microsoft Office for Mac is a good program. I don't mind paying for good software. This isn't a battle for Operating Systems. Who cares if Bill makes some dough from office? For once, he deserves it...
Andrew
Mon May 02, 2005 11:26 am Subject: Re: umm, not so good
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
I'm slightly concerned that this district doesn't have a real plan of action. From the comments the guy made, it just appears that they are going to "wing it" and hope that it works. Throwing money Apple's way without a decent idea of how to implement their wonderful technology is a terrible idea and will lead to people hating Apple for no reason in the near future. I hope I'm wrong and it works out.
Did anybody else sense that in the statements or is it just me?
Andrew
I didn't think that. It's not like he's going to spend 3 hours telling TMO all of his plans. It seemed like a normal interview. Kind of general, yes, but that's all the information we really need from him.
There are somw real questions concerns about VA county. The official website http://www.henrico.k12.va.us/Announcements/Dell/index.htm states that the repairs were often and that the student (student's fsmily) had to come up with the $100.00 deductible. Also the abscence of Office, 12 inch screen to the Dell's 14, and 4 million dollars less. Something happened for them to go through all of this work. Either Apple dropped the ball or there was extenuating circumstances.
If they are like our state, there may be software the administration uses that is PC only, so the office stays PC while the rest use Macs, only problem is the office has no idea how to use the Macs and sees them as inferior due to the lacking software. Eventually all of the schools get switched to what the office and state are using.
Sure, all of these can be addressed, and it seems that Apple is. Losing Henrica may be the shot in the arm to get Apple competitive.
Mon May 02, 2005 1:00 pm Subject: lack of viruses and assware should be the biggest thing
Now I know how to get my wife an iBook. Just wander the halls of those schools and grab a backpack. Hey, anybody want to buy an iBook for $500?
- Jon
P.S. I'm not serious about me stealing iBooks, but it does seem like it would be an issue. And, while I wouldn't have had trouble keeping track of a laptop in school, I can imagine how most of my classmates would have handled it. What a nightmare.
Mon May 02, 2005 1:32 pm Subject: hmm. airports included?
Well, first Jon, students carry all kinds of laptops in their bags already... sooo... that's kind of a moot subject. Either they take care of their $#!%, or they don't. And i'm betting the school's not going to let property go off campus without some sort of contractual agreement, i.e. ... lose this laptop, you fork over some dough...
Second... cheating isn't dependent upon kids having laptops in class. it's having net access... and wireless phones... c'mon now.. catch up! the most used items for cheating in class are mobiles and pdas...
On either topic, basically, it's the same thing, different decade... and as we get new stuff, we find out what has to be taken care of and what does not, what works against cheating and what doesnt... the kids that want to learn *always* do, and those that don't, no matter what you do, will somehow learn less, regardless the technology being used.
vurt
So this story must be left wing, anti christian, homo loving propaganda from those fruity Apple people cuz everyone knows that no one can beat Microsoft in anything...really!!
LONGHORN WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD...WORD TO YOUR MOTHER!!
( insert picture of wannabe RC in baggy pants and crooked cap posing outside his tralier )
QuoteGuest wrote:
So this story must be left wing, anti christian, homo loving propaganda from those fruity Apple people cuz everyone knows that no one can beat Microsoft in anything...really!!
LONGHORN WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD...WORD TO YOUR MOTHER!!
( insert picture of wannabe RC in baggy pants and crooked cap posing outside his tralier )
I didn't think politics affected platform preference, there are mean people on both sides. My brother is gay, talks like RC, uses a PC, and voted for Kerry... who knew?
I wonder if MS makes more than Apple on this deal?
Ah, who cares - the students still get iBooks, which is all that reallly matters!!
Perhaps one day iWork will blossom (and sprout a spreadsheet), allowing all of those those MS Office copies to gather dust on the shelf, but until then Word and Excel seem to be necessary evils for those who wish to share documents.
From my understanding, wireless cards in student machines are the norm, and the machines are locked down, keeping students from being able to cheat. As for theft, that's always going to be an issue. But guess who is responside if the computer is lost - the student! So this will make a nice way for the students to learn responsibility. For what it's worth, the one to one initiative is great, and considering the plan to deploy in pilot schools before going county wide, it looks like they have a better plan of action than Henrico county, va.
[quote="Guest"]So this story must be left wing, anti christian, homo loving propaganda from those fruity Apple people cuz everyone knows that no one can beat Microsoft in anything...really!!
LONGHORN WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD...WORD TO YOUR MOTHER!!
This right wing, gun loving, Christian ( please learn the English language ) has been using Apple products for over a decade. I normally don't respond to sh*t other then to wipe it off the bottom of my shoe. Peace
Actually, theft of the laptops in these programs is extremely low, as a security plan is built in to the laptop program. Funny observation, it's many times more often that it's the teachers who are losing or having their laptops stolen. Yep! You read that correctly.
If you are interested in how the program works, I would be very happy to share with you...
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