You’re the head of Apple Education and you only have 21% of the education market.  What is your plan of action to get more market share?  Try to find more states like Maine, try to get a really really low cost computer, get education advertisements running, start up a system that works with administrators to get macs?  Where would you focus?  Higher education, k-12?  I hope people run with this topic. 

What about creating some kind of iTeach program that is designed for teachers. It could help to keep track of each student using a simple iTunes style database. I doubt it would too hard to come up with a need to have iApp designed for the education market and or teachers.

The first thing I’d do is light a fire under the quality control people and get the mess with emac screens fixed. Nothing else matters if the machines don’t work.

After that I think DrShakagee is on the right track.  What the mac needs to reclaim stature in the ed mrket is a killer app. Something like iTeach, would be OK but what you really need is an elegant authoring system (think HyperCard on steroids)

Great topic, Burnum!

1.) Get personal reps back in the field.  Apple is still reeling from bringing all of its

2.) Find a way to offer an inexpensive iMac that still offers *some* sort of margins.  NetBooted thin clients leap to mind.  No modems, AirPort or Ethernet hardwired to the motherboard, 1 USB port (3 port-hub in the keyboard), 1 FireWire port, 10 GB (or smaller, if available) hard drives (if not NetBooted), CD-ROM drives, stay with G3 processors.  Price point should maintain margins at 15%.

3.) Educational iApps are a terrific idea, and I think that if Apple could offer some compelling Mac-only software solutions to help teachers, that education buyers would be clamoring at Apple’s virtual-doors.  This should initially include teacher admin apps (grades, scheduling, etc.) that could easily be standalone versions of PowerSchool features (not dependant on PowerSchool).  From there, specific educational software titles that help teachers teach students[\b].

I know it’s expensive, but I’ve always thought that most companies don’t seem to get the point that what you train students on and they use in school is most likely what they will use when they grow up and are on their own.

I’d say discount to almost ZERO profit, and sometimes maybe even less then that.  Perhaps even give a bunch of machines away.  Get them into schools at WHATEVER the cost to the company (within reason of course) just for what it will do in the future. 

Think about if 90% of all high school and higher education institutions were using macs.  The students are taught using macs.  And, like others said, teach how to use these machines effectively.  Then, it will start to change apple’s market share….

I don’t think that’s sutainable, and Dell could easily beat them at that game.  EASILY!  More importantly, the company has already shown it is willing to do anything to gain marketshare.

Apple has to make a profit, even if it is a small one, on its education sales, because of its unique position in the market.  I feel rather strongly that the only way for them to do this is to make the platform more valuable to schools.

Applying this argument to my first point, doing things like I mentioned in my first point is attacking the market from a standpoint where Dell can’t compete on most levels, specifically the software options.

To summarize, Apple has to choose the battles it can win, and it will always lose the low-price/volume pricing/give-it-away-at-a-loss battle to Dell, and even HP.

This is an interesting thread

There were a couple of news reports last week I’m searching to find that detailed some of Apple’s problems in education.

A couple of things to consider. Most education Apps for the Mac are for Mac OS 8 & 9. It will take years for developers to relase OS X sfotware for K-8 schools.

Without the need to upgrade to OS X, an iMac bought three or four years ago still holds its own in the classroom. Apple’s education sales do have a cyclical component.

Second, Apple has focused much effort on school-wide and district level sales. Bryan has a point about the lack of a sales force in the field. Apple education reps do travel, but not to individual schools as a general rule. This has cost them sales as they pursue school-wide solutions.

There is a role for Apple education partners whether through authroized resellers or a better developed consulatant program.

An Apple reseller is in danger of losing their relationship with Apple if they knowingly sell Apple hardware to a school. I think it’s silly for Apple to take this heavy-handed approach with resellers in terms of school sales.

Apple has been pushing wireless solutions to the virtual exclusion of solutions for schools that prefer hard-wired classrooms. I believe this is a mistake. Not every school wants or needs wireless networks.

Years ago Apple partnered with major retailers and supermarkets to support Apple-branded school technology purchases. It’s a strategy I think they should consider again. On some levels its a battle for mind share. The more Apple is linked to schools in the minds of consumers, the more consumer and schools sales Apple can achieve.

I think Apple has very hard working education reps. They do amazing things for their clients. But unless schools are apt to call Apple when considering technology purchases, it’s difficult for the reps to sell more product.

[quote author=“Bryan”]
To summarize, Apple has to choose the battles it can win, and it will always lose the low-price/volume pricing/give-it-away-at-a-loss battle to Dell, and even HP.

I strongly agree with Bryan on this point. I can’t describe the kinds of convoluted, overly complicated and shockingly expensive “solutions” I’ve seen offered to schools. Education “consultants” will often quote very low prices on computers because that’s the only component of a technology plan buyers can easily compare with other purchasing sources.

Often times it’s the networking and other components of the plan where consultants and solutions providers make their money. Add to that the costs of a comprehensive service contract and consultants can make a very good living off of schools. The contracts lock them into years fo revenue and sales from districts.

Apple’s easy to use and maintain solutions put these consulatants out of business. They know that. Their vested interest isn’t education, it’s profits and they will steer clients away from Apple solutions for this reason. I’ve walked into more than one school technology meeting with an Apple alternative only to see the “consultant” begin to stutter. The half-truths told about Apple products or even a complete lack of knowldge about Apple products works against the company.

If Apple isn’t in direct contact with schools or continues to prohibit the company’s resellers from selling hardware to schools, Apple will continue to be at a disadvantage.

Apple needs a killer iApp for a killer iAppliance.

I absolutely agree with those who think Dell will beat the tar out of Apple when it comes to pricing and marketing. The best thing for Apple is to make use of it’s talents. Apple needs to create an iApp for an educational based iPod. The “e"Pod should be enabled with Bluetooth/Rendezvous/ & maybe iChat capabilities.

Apple can create cheap, cheap iTablets w/ keyboard that stay in the classroom. But, it’s the ePod that is carried by the student (and teacher), to and fro with all the information at their disposal, be it at school, at home or on the bus.
Apple can’t beat Dell and it’s own game but Dell can’t beat Apple at what Apple does best: Designing software that is seamless with the hardware. Who knows the ePod may revolutionize the classroom.
Just a thought…
Ron D’Silva

Apple vs Dell in Education

I disagree that Apple can’t compete with Dell in the education market.
They have a lower cost processor (G3), they buy (for the most part) industry standard components, and System software and applications “can” be added for no additional cost to the total system price.

Apple’s Education Pie

Two most important things Apple needs to do, to get back it’s education market. 1) wine and dine the IT guys, they are Apple’s worst enemy. Apple must educate IT people, they corrupt Principals, teachers and parents. They can be turned from the dark side, just give them the geek tools they need. 2) Apple must hold a lot more parent - teacher conferences and show them - especially parents that a school with Apple products or a school with Apple/PC products is a total advantage for their children. Parents believe the theory that “my kid should learn on a PC, because that is what they will use in the real world”. Parents have to realize that our kids will benefit learning the Mac, they can adjust to another OS with ease if need be, most parents are the ones who do not adjust quickly. Having two platforms to learn is like learning two languages, it allows students to see the advantages & disadvantages of these two OS’s and to be ready for any computing industry they may enter, whether it is financial or design.

How to "fix" Apple Education

I worked school accounts for Apple (Through the Apple Education Sales Consultant program) for over a decade. In my predjudiced opinion, many of their problems go straight back to the discontinuation of that program 2 1/2 years ago.

1. At that time, the number of people Apple had in the field covering education dropped by 2/3. The feeling was that Web ordering, plus email and fax contact (rather than face-to-face meetings) would make up the difference. Wrong.

2. Apple feels that educators will embrace OS X if they just promote it enough. Wrong. Many of the computers in the field are nearly 10 years old, and running a mix of OS 7, 8, and 9. Educational IT people WILL NOT support a third platform; if they have to change, it’s going to be to Windows. EVERY SINGLE education customer I have is terrified of the day they can’t buy Macs that run OS9.

3. “Pretty"and “Elegant” do not sell to education. Cheap, durable, and reliable do. None of the current Mac lineup answers those needs. The eMac comes closest, but for the horror stories about “raster shift”. And how much cheaper could it be with a beige case, a curved CRT, and non-mirrored speakers?

4. Two critical products have made Macs successful in education AppleShare IP and At Ease/MacManager.

AppleShare was a file server so easy to administer I offered a 4-hour course for school librarians. OS X Server, while more powerful, requires a professionally trained administrator. Why is this important? Well, the IT guys will NOT learn to run Apple server software - so the lower level people must do it. With OS X, they can’t.

MacManager (and At Ease before it) gave a standardized, secure, simplified interface to the networked Mac environment. Teachers could easily and on the fly change the software and files a whole network of student stations could access. There is no indication this will ever be available for OS X.

Sadly, the sum of all this is that Apple no longer has the tools to be successful in education, unless they’re willing to turn the clock back to 1999.

Get rid of the Self-Service Fee

I work for a small Liberal Arts school, and we have about 100 Macintoshes on campus.  This business of apple chargeing us $1000/year for the pleasure of working on their hardware is just plain dumb.  When I can call gateway and they will mail me the replacement part no questions asked.  How can apple expect to keep competitive when there service contracts are so outragous.

I don’t know how many times I’ve got into it with my Apple rep, over this.  This is just about enough for me to not recomend apple computers because when they do go down, although it is not as often as the Gateways the service time can be almost a few weeks, versus a few days for gateway.  I have to drive 50 miles to the nearest service center drop it off and they get to when they feel like it, or I have to work on finding replacement parts elsewhere.

If anyone has any good way around this please let me know,

J.Duck
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

If you want to help teachers, help them save time. If Apple could deliver a Mac-only solution that helped them save a lot of time, that would be just one more reason to have more Macs on campus.

Take a look at:

Link to Article

This story ran in The Australian newspaper’s IT section today carrying a picture of the developer demonstrating his app on a TiBook. Perhaps Apple should think about buying it up?

[Edited URL into link for page width reasons - Bryan]

Re: Apple’s Education Pie

[quote author=“mdejongd”]Two most important things Apple needs to do, to get back it’s education market. 1) wine and dine the IT guys, they are Apple’s worst enemy. Apple must educate IT people, they corrupt Principals, teachers and parents. They can be turned from the dark side, just give them the geek tools they need. 2) Apple must hold a lot more parent - teacher conferences and show them - especially parents that a school with Apple products or a school with Apple/PC products is a total advantage for their children. Parents believe the theory that “my kid should learn on a PC, because that is what they will use in the real world”. Parents have to realize that our kids will benefit learning the Mac, they can adjust to another OS with ease if need be, most parents are the ones who do not adjust quickly. Having two platforms to learn is like learning two languages, it allows students to see the advantages & disadvantages of these two OS’s and to be ready for any computing industry they may enter, whether it is financial or design.

I work in a PC school.  I’m a mac junky.  You’re dead on.  The parent volunteers who set up the computers, the “experts” wouldn’t have known a mac if it bit em, they weren’t on the radar for these parents.
Now we’re paying the price big time, I’ve managed to smuggle in 4 Macs, the kids fight over them, I’m making converts out of the kids simply because they see the beige box crashing 6 times a day while the iMac looks cool and does cool stuff.
Get friendly with IT people, principals.  Convince parents.  Tough to do.
Most teacher experts in our system are heavy duty Mac proponents, our IT guy is totally ignorant, if an Apple rep took him to lunch and educated him, we could topple the whole system back to the Mac.  He needs to hear it from another “expert”.

Wow this has really taken off! 

I really like the iApp for education idea.  An easy to use, helpful application for teachers to create an manage their mateiral and students would be a great benefit.

I’m at a small liberal arts college who loves its wireless network.  I don’t think a K-12 school needs a wireless network, but the higher education market is really into wireless.  Also, we just switched to Jaguar last month.  Our labs contain iMacs and newer.  You can rarely find a machine running a Classic OS anymore.  I think the school likes the new OS.  They are really trying to push it.  Ironically, there are still many comptuers using Win 98 and not xp.

That said, I don’t think higher education is as much as a problem as the K-12 market.  Every college I toured last year had both Mac and PC support just because the departments needed specialized programs that only came on one platform or the other.  Also, with a larger student body then a K-12 market they have to support both.  However, all the local high schools in my area upgraded to Dells this year or last year.  It was administration and IT that made the decision.

However, I talked to many teachers who seemed very excited about the new technology.  Some were intimitated by having to learn more technological stuff.  But most of them were excited about the new tools.  If Apple created an excellent training program for teachers with hands on demonstrations to let the teachers actually learn instead of just a show and tell demo, I think this would be a good move in the right direction.  Most teachers aren’t involved in the decision.  Sure the administration wants what the teachers wants, but they ask their IT dept.

K-12 also has a much more limited budget than higher ed.  While some department gets an upgrade to their equipment each year, high schools will have to use computers 4 years old before a massive upgrade.  This is where Bryan’s idea of a really scalled down but very afordable edu mac would be very tempting.  Perhaps Apple should make some education Switch ads.  Principles, teachers, superintendents telling how they switched to mac easily.