Georgia School District Looking to Apple for 63,000 Laptops

February 7th, 2005 at 2:00 PM - News by Misha Sakellaropoulo

Georgiais Cobb County is in talks with Apple to provide laptops to more than 63,000 students and teachers in its school districts, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports (free registration required).

School board members will be asked to approve the plan on March 9, when its first phase -- providing laptops to all the districtis school teachers this spring -- comes up for a vote. Also on the agenda that day: approval to set up demo sites at four schools in the Fall.

The second phase will be to provide the computers to high school students in early 2006, with the last phase being to provide the computers to middle school students at an unknown future date.

Other details of the plan are unknown at this time, including how much the whole thing will cost. The county has reportedly spent months negotiating with other companies, including IBM and Dell, with contracts amounting to $69.4 million over four years, plus additional support and training costs.

County officials say they are hoping to score a deal similar to Michiganis recent laptop contract with the state, which netted laptops for just $275 each.