Why isn't apple back in the schools?

[Timotheos]

When I left school just under two years ago we were using the old see through colored iMacs with os9 and had upgraded a few computers to Emacs with osx.
The guy that did the buying owned the apple store in my city so that helped, i think they got down graded low budget Emacs.
All the teachers were given iBooks and a few classes use iBooks too.

I only realised last year that all those old school computers i used at school growing up were apples.

When i got to use osx with the Emacs was what changed me to an apple fan. I think the schools are a pretty decent way to win over new consumers

[eric2006]

Originally Posted by Timotheos

When i got to use osx with the Emacs was what changed me to an apple fan. I think the schools are a pretty decent way to win over new consumers

That's a good point. Apple won't make money selling to schools, but they can defiantly win a user base. They should be looking ahead.

[Mikuro]

Originally Posted by Natobasso

These new intel core processors should go a long way toward bringing apple's price points down to more acceptable levels.

I doubt it. I'm pretty sure PPC chips were actually cheaper than Intel's chips. It was certainly not the reason Macs were more expensive; Apple has the fattest profit margins in the industry, because they can get away with it (and also they're probably the only company that spends money on real R&D). That's not likely to change.

[wolf_pack]

apple has only what a third of the market if that right? they want to gain more but they make no effort in trying if you ask me? it's like living in a small town like i do you need change but noone does nothing about it because they say its been like this forever which i think it's wrong because you need change to keep growing and to prosper....I just feel apple need to work on going back to the roots of becoming a school powerhouse again and things will work out for them.....Terry

[Neptune2603]

Originally Posted by wolf_pack

apple has only what a third of the market if that right? they want to gain more but they make no effort in trying if you ask me? it's like living in a small town like i do you need change but noone does nothing about it because they say its been like this forever which i think it's wrong because you need change to keep growing and to prosper....I just feel apple need to work on going back to the roots of becoming a school powerhouse again and things will work out for them.....Terry

Apple's whole comeback image and appeal is being a computer that's not for everyone; it's for the better one's. I don't personally feel that way though, the key to Apple ever making a comeback against Windows is rebuilding their stronghold of fans, which they killed off a lot of during the 90's. Rebuilding takes time, they're increasing their market share slowly (Which is under 20%....) and building a new, bigger base. Once you have your base, you build up and move those grey area windows users to the white side.

But for now, they're building their base by appealing to elitist.

[Viro]

Originally Posted by Neptune2603

Apple's whole comeback image and appeal is being a computer that's not for everyone; it's for the better one's. I don't personally feel that way though, the key to Apple ever making a comeback against Windows is rebuilding their stronghold of fans, which they killed off a lot of during the 90's. Rebuilding takes time, they're increasing their market share slowly (Which is under 20%....) and building a new, bigger base. Once you have your base, you build up and move those grey area windows users to the white side.

But for now, they're building their base by appealing to elitist.

I'm sorry, but that's utter crap. Do Apple ads make seek to make them look good, cool and desirable? Sure. That's the purpose of advertising. Nobody ever sold a product by advertising it as being boring, bland, run of the mill. Does this mean that every company targets elitists?

Mac platform as a solution, works. Personally, I bought a new macbook recently even though I've been slowly moving all my work to Linux. Why? It's not because I'm a rabid Mac fan, but because Mac OS X works without much effort. Ever tried getting your wireless card to work under Linux? It's no small feat. Then, you sit in fear that every kernel update could potentially screw up your system, bringing down your network connection. Ever tried getting sleep to work on Linux? Tried waking that sleeping machine? None of that works out of the box, even on distros like Ubuntu.

Macs will not get the same kind of install base that Windows has. Microsoft is far too entrenched to be removed, and I doubt Apple is trying to compete. In many respects, this is largely irrelevant, since all your work on the Mac can be used by non-Macs as well (if you stick to common file formats, of course). So where's the value in a Mac, if all you do on a Mac can be done on any other system? It lies in usability. Macs are highly usable machines, that stay out of your way for most of the part. Linux, with GNOME is largely getting there and I can't wait for that day to come. Until then, it's going to be Mac OS X for me.

Windows isn't even in the equation. The last time I used (and developed for) Windows actively was circa 2002. I had a nice moan about what I perceive to be the failings of Windows here which I wont repeat.

[rubaiyat]

Well it may hearten you to know that my son's school is going back to Macs after having tried Dells for 3 years. I hope they sacked the b*stard who got them to switch in the first place, his staff certainly didn't think highly of him.

Sometimes it just takes a Principal or CEO who is fed up with Microsoft/PC problems and has experienced a Mac, to actually force I.T. to put the school's or corporation's interests before their own.

I saw recent figures which indicate Apple is finally fighting back in Education and winning some significant sales.

[Ferdinand]

IMO, Apple literally "punched" all schools away with their new product line. Think about it: They remove all "cheap" products and put the expensive ones there instead. What if a school wants Apple laptops? Without the camera and all of those extras? They buy an iBook, you'd think? Wrong! They don't sell them anymore, only the webpage is left. So the schools think about it and want cheap desktops that are all-in-one. They go to the emac website and buy some. Not anymore! They removed all trails the eMac left on their websites and only sell the new iMacs, which again are way more expensive than the eMacs. That's what I call fighting off schools!