S cholastic, the US publishers of the Harry Potter empire, the same company that decided to edit the books for US distribution to be less British, have released a study concerning US education market share in the computer industry. According to the study, Apple is the single largest vendor in the education base in terms of installed user base. Apple holds some 33% of that installed base, beating out Dellis 18% installed user base. The study also points out that the other 66% of the market not covered by Apple is controlled by the Wintel camp as a whole, and that Dell is thrashing Apple in terms of new education sales by some 35% to 21% of purchases. From the study:
- Computer Brands: Macintosh is the single most common brand of instructional computer in schools today, but Wintel computers (from all makers combined) constitute more than two-thirds of the installed base. Of Wintel computers, Dell Computer is the most common brand with an estimated 18% of the installed base. Dell is also the leading brand in district plans to purchase instructional computers for the 2002-2003 school year, with a 35% share, beating out Appleis Macintosh brand (21%) for the lead.
- Wireless: Almost one-half of the districts surveyed (43%) report current ownership of wireless devices. In addition, one-third of all districts report they will purchase wireless devices this year. As a sign of this growing trend, 9% of districts plan to buy all wireless computers this school year. Of wireless devices, 72.5% are laptops.
According to the methodology published with the results, the study was conducted by interviewing some 450 participants via the telephone. You can read the full report at Scholasticis Web site. The report has additional information on wireless use in schools. Thanks to Observer Scott Wilson for the heads up on the study.