Slashdot Mirror
Apple Losing Out To Microsoft and Google in US Classrooms (macrumors.com)
Apple is losing its grip on American classrooms, which technology companies have long used to hook students on their brands for life. From a report on MacRumors: According to research company Futuresource Consulting, in 2016 the number of devices in American classrooms that run iOS and macOS fell to third place behind both Google-powered laptops and Windows devices. Out of 12.6 million mobile devices shipped to primary and secondary schools in the U.S., Chromebooks accounted for 58 percent of the market, up from 50 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, school shipments of iPads and Mac laptops fell to 19 percent, from about 25 percent, over the same period, while Microsoft Windows laptops and tablets stayed relatively stable at about 22 percent.
Chromebooks are so much easier to manage and maintain from the get-go, without having to purchase any other management software. Just using the G-Suite admin console lets us keep tens of thousands of these devices up to date, and with the necessary apps pushed out. Windows was a nightmare. We didn't even bother with Apple.
Personally in IT and we have chromebooks (10k almost), iPads and PCs. Ipads by far are the hardest to manage and I think have the least instructional value.
-We can't afford an MDM like Casper or Meraki so I use Apple's half-baked profile manager software which is pretty terrible. I know it's more of less free, but if they cared about getting education market share they might want to come up with something a little better. Chromebook management model is an extra $35 for a lifetime license fee which is baked-in and much easier for the purchasers to swallow. Oh yea, free google apps as well and the google admin console is a DREAM. It also integrates with Active Directory via Google Apps Directory Sync and I have SSO set up with SimpleSamlPHP. It's awesome.
-Because I have a MDM that I'm constantly scared is going to crash (I've had to rebuild it twice trying to get app deployment to work, ultimately it didn't and couldn't get apple to figure out why) I don't trust using the Device Enrollment Program so you NEED a mac to use the configurator for initial setup. I would say Chromebooks are an order of magnitude faster to deploy.
-iPads don't have keyboards. Chromebooks are cheaper and have a keyboard so you can do ACTUAL WORK.
-Apple constantly has trouble getting us on-site repairs
Apple makes shiny single-user devices and I'm glad they missed the boat on education. I only hope I can get people to stop buying the products because "We can't use photoshop on a PC!", just get a bigger monitor and you'll save hundreds!
Rant over. That felt great.
Let's be real, most workplaces use Windows/Linux. So kids are better off.
This is not true for scientific research, particularly in the mathematical-based sciences, where Linux/Unix is the de facto standard (although I am sure some do use Windows). However of the past couple of years I have noticed that the number of mac laptops used by students in my lectures has declined enormously to be replaced by a large variety of windows machines.
As I see it the reasons are twofold: price and ability to write on the screen. Students cannot afford the insanely inflated prices for new hardware which is now far from the leading edge. Plus the ability to write on the screen in tablet mode makes it very easy to email mathematical working and diagrams to professors which is really useful for subjects like physics.
Furthermore with the addition of the Linux subsystem for Windows these machines can now run Linux executables without rebooting. The increasing innovation and price/performance advantage of Windows machines has been enough to get me to convert from mac and while I would love to be able to run MacOS on my Dell laptop, I am happier saving $1000 (Canadian) for a better spec of machine and a less desirable but still workable (and improving) OS.
I am on the team that decides the tech our schools use. I guarantee you that the price comparison between iPads and Chromebooks is not 1:1. Apple and their consultants may provide discounts, but they are no where near the level as those on Chromebooks. We buy replacement XE303c12 for about $80 all-in from our vendor and are thinking about upgrading to XE500s for $130 each. Chromebooks (at least the ones we use) are way more robust, actually serviceable, way easier to manage, and supported far longer. We've literally had Apple stuff go EOL on us while still covered by AppleCare; hardware bug == free replacement, software bug == screw you no updates! We are now phasing them out for different tablets we can actually patch security holes in, but for now they are on a separate VLAN so they don't accidentally infect everything when they get hit by a student.