All iPads Thought about the ARM MacBook...

[sracer]

Are iPadOS based laptops a possibility? Or is the K-12 EDU market lost to Google?

iPads in classrooms make a great commercial, but in the real world then kids are destructive, schools are underfunded and most parents aren’t rich. So, with so many schools/parents rethinking the future of education then maybe this is a good time for Apple to jump back in to education.

Apple already has Apple Classroom and we all know how much Tim Cook loves recycling old parts so maybe an A10/iPadOS based laptop could be a cheap alternative over gClassroom and Chromebooks.

Never say never, but iPadOS based devices are not really going to be viable K-12 EDU market for the foreseeable future. Yes, they are currently being used, they're not in the mainstream and often installations of iPads are usually subsidized by Apple or a company that contracts with a school district for technology hardware and support.

The devices themselves are only part of the equation. The administrative support and control of the environment is a major factor that really helps reduce the amount of time educators and support staff spend on managing the whole thing.

What Google offers is quite a rich and functional setup. Apple would need to do something significant and uncharacteristic for them to be competitive.

The old Apple culture took a long-term view. That is one reason why they were so into education 15+ years ago... those students went on to college and beyond with an affinity for Apple products. The new Apple culture is about reaping the financial rewards of all those years of investment. Things go in cycles and so when Apple is ready for another cycle of investing for the long-term, they'll ramp up their EDU offerings. But that won't be for at least another 5-10 years, IMO.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

The popularity of Chromebooks is based purely on simplicity.

But for schools, G-suite and the ability to control and spy on individual accounts

The popularity of Chromebooks is based more on trading hardware and services for the student’s data. This is VERY valuable to Google and why the cost to support each Chromebook is very low. Apple would have to want to go into the data gathering/selling business in order to challenge Google on price, and that’s unlikely.

Besides, the education market isn’t as important as it once may have been. For every kid with a Chromebook in school, chances are they’ve got an iPhone in their pocket. When they get ready to purchase their own computing devices, the logo on their iPhone is very likely going to play a MUCH larger role in their purchase that whatever cheap Chromebook they took tests on.