Why isn't apple back in the schools?

[wolf_pack]

Ok i have a question or opinion.. for so long apple was in schools and people were loving them, trust me i know i used an apple IIe in high school. My biggest thing is apple dominated in the schools and everybody in school loved them... Now all the schools are using windows xp and cloned computers? Why is this? I'm just getting back into apple computers because i've always had a thing for them but boy am i way out of touch on osx but will learn it in due time because i'm a patient man. I want to know where did apple go wrong and lose there market in the school districts? or did we just get a bunch of network people that didn't understand apple and it was much easier to go to windows 98 and then to xp? I would love to hear everyone's opinion on this matter....thanks Terry

[Mikuro]

Well, Apple's made a lot of bad moves in the past 10-15 years that have kept them out of a lot of schools. In the past few years, I think the biggest problem has been Apple's apparent schizophrenia. They just can't make up their minds what markets they do and don't give a damn about. Right now, their product line suggests that they don't really give a damn about education (or anyone on a tight budget, for that matter).

Apple has a tendency to release great, cheap machines for consumers and educators, and then either kill them off or replace them with something more expensive that doesn't fit the market as well. The cheap, kid-friendly CRT iMacs were replaced by the classy/expensive/breakable G4 iMac, which was then replaced by the luxury G5/Intel iMacs. The eMac (the truest successor to the CRT iMacs) was killed off. The G4 Mac Mini was replaced by the fancier, more expensive Intel Mini, and the iBook got the same treatment with the MacBook. Apple has finally replaced the eMac with their bottom-of-the-line iMac, but the iMac is, again, more expensive (by 25%!) and too fancy for the eMac's market.

I hate to say it, but when it comes to budget markets, Apple has no vision.

[chevy]

I Switzerland the reason is different: Computer in school are not bought by school managers anymore, but by IT managers of the local community. And these are buying only DELLs for more than 5 years now for all their usages, from secretary to servers, based on global contracts (including support and machines replacement). This also makes easier for them to maintain a limited number of standard configurations that they re-install if anything goes wrong.

Apple lost its position at the end of the Mac OS 8 era, when the system was not very stable and had performance issues. It will be very hard to recover. But for sure not impossible.

[wolf_pack]

yes very true but when i was going to school back in the 80's apple was big and now it seems like you said the don't give a damn about education. If they get these big school districts back into apple and support and stuff they could have a little money to do some more things... I think they honestly lost there roots that being education ya know? To me which i have gotten some apples via school districts just being thrashed because noone likes them or mostly not understanding them i think is terrible....I have not one clue how to go about getting around but i have a imac g3 400mhz system running osx that i'm going mess around with and get fimilar with... If apple wants to sell there system they need to "educate" the average salesman into not only selling regular pc but macs at the same time....Terry

[wolf_pack]

chevy your right because the tech guy for our school is sold on pc and windows and wouldn't ever have another apple in the school, which to me kinda peaed me off because heck if it wasn't for apple it wouldn't of open the door for anything of the pc being used in the schools? Besides half of the tech guys know apple has a good product just overpriced and i think there afraid it would take to much time to learn osx? besides if they learned it right they shouldn't have any problems like windows has and wouldn't have to always fix it, maybe it's job security......lol

[Natobasso]

These new intel core processors should go a long way toward bringing apple's price points down to more acceptable levels. Maybe then we'll see more macs in schools and elsewhere?

[wolf_pack]

i can only hope so ya know there a good computer and i just hate seeing windows come into school because it's not a user friendly platform...Terry

[eric2006]

The cheapest system Apple offers is just under a grand. Dell offers a system for half that. For schools on a budget, it's harder to justify the extra $500, especially with Apple's image as an "expensive" computer company. Sad, but true.