Microsoft Losing the School Markets To iPads and Chromebooks

dkatana writes Microsoft's licensing scheme, the high cost of support and difficult management of devices are the key factors making schools drop Windows for better alternatives as iPads and Chromebooks. Google is making a dent in the education market with Chromebooks. The internet giant has been promoting the use of Chrome OS with specific tools for schools to manage the devices, their apps and users. Its Chromebooks for Education program is helping schools deploy large numbers of devices with an easy management system. While Google is successful with Chromebooks as school laptops the clear winner on tablets is Apple. iPads are a the preferred platform for schools deploying tablets as digital learning devices.

Comments

Cut to the chase...

[vettemph]

This is what should happen everywhere...

http://www.linux.com/news/feat...

Re:Nonsense

[Blaskowicz]

With a network of hundreds of tablets that need to be locked down, managed, protected against malware, needing to access content etc. you'd better want them to join a Windows domain. The free Windows version won't allow that.

I think the idea sucks anyway whatever the OS is. A tablet has less display estate than A4 paper and an open book. Bright screen stealing attention is especially worrying. Wifi is a nightmare, but a USB plug on each desk that gives wired ethernet access could remedy that.
Moving, overbright (with bad black levels) crap don't believe in a classroom. Give the kids something with a keyboard and a monochrome LCD.

Re:Nonsense

[dgatwood]

USB-wired Ethernet means reverse tethering. Unfortunately, it really isn't practical on a classroom scale, because of the distances involved, not to mention that general-purpose computers aren't really all that great at handling high-speed network routing for thirty or forty machines to begin with, and USB's excessive CPU overhead just piles on top of that.

It would be cheaper and more reliable to install a dedicated Wi-Fi hot spot in every classroom with a fairly directional antenna on the ceiling, and set the maximum transmit power really low so each classroom acts like its own microcell that is roughly limited to the bounds of the room. Chances are, a single shared Wi-Fi connection is plenty fast enough for a single classroom, and in my experience, as long as you aren't doing tethering, Wi-FI works very well on iOS (the recent WPA2 Enterprise networking authentication changes in iOS 8 notwithstanding). It's only a nightmare on Windows, which is probably one of the reasons that Microsoft is getting stomped into the ground in school markets.... But I digress.

BTW, does anybody else find it odd for an article to say that MS is losing the market? Normally "-ing" verbs imply that something is happening right now. I was under the impression that they had pretty much lost the K-12 market to iPads years ago.