Apple's iPad education sales double, outperform Mac 2-to-1
Apple on Tuesday announced the iPad is quickly becoming the company's strongest asset in the education market as sales nearly doubled from a year ago, meaning the tablet outperformed even portable Macs in the segment for the quarter ending in June.
During its third fiscal quarter earnings conference call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer revealed the three month period was the best ever for education iPad sales and nearly doubled in the K-12 market.
"The iPad continues to be a great success in the U.S. education market," said Oppenheimer. "Even though, as I mentioned earlier, we achieved all-time record Mac sales to U.S. education institutions during the quarter, we sold more than twice as many iPads as Macs."
This is the second consecutive quarter where the iPad doubled sales of Macs in the education market.
Driving the iPad's high education adoption rate was the cheaper iPad 2, a carry-over model priced at $399 targeted at entry-level consumers and students. Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that while the third-generation iPad was the quarter's top seller, the legacy tablet sold just under 1 million units to educational institutions during the second calendar quarter.
Overall, Apple sold some 17 million iPads during the quarter ending in June, up from 84 percent from 9.25 million during the same period one year ago. Institutions purchased two iPads for every Mac during the three months, signaling a shift away from traditional computing to more interactive touch-based learning.
Cook goes on to say a more affordable tablet was key in garnering sales at the education level and gives much of the credit to the legacy iPad 2's new pricing scheme.
"The adoption rate of iPad in education is something I've never seen from any technology product in history," Cook said. "Usually education tends to be a fairly conservative institution in terms of buying, or K-12 does, and we're not seeing that at all on the iPad."
In describing the iPad's education potential, Oppenheimer gave an example of how schools are using the iPad in classroom mentioning that the Mansfield Texas Independent School District purchased 11,000 units slated to be used by teachers and students. MISD plans to rollout the tablets as part of its "Power Up!" initiative that aims to convert the traditional pen-and-paper learning environment to a completely paperless model.
MISD's Power Up! initiative will use 11,000 iPads.
Source: MISD
According to the Power Up! website, over 200 high school teachers and administrators have registered for iPad deployment workshops as of July 6. As part of the program teachers will upload class materials to the internet where students will be able to access the data at any time through their iPads, thus negating the need for paper handouts. Power Up! also grants students the freedom and responsibility to work collaboratively both in and out of school.
MISD's initiative is similar to a program created by the San Diego Unified School District which purchased 26,000 iPads worth $15 million in June.
Apple also announced on Tuesday that iTunes U saw over 14 million downloads during the quarter as the now-dedicated app added 700,000 new schools and 750 new courses.
The Cupertino-based company has always been aggressive in the education market and regularly offers student and teacher discounts as well as institutional discounts for bulk purchases. In 2002, Apple released an more affordable education-minded computer called the eMac which stayed in production for only three years before being axed in 2005 in lieu of across-the-board product discounts.
Apple in February unveiled a sub-$1000 13-inch MacBook Air model to take the place of the venerable white MacBook which was aimed directly at students buyers. The basic thin-and-light's pricing is offset by bulk purchases and the unit can only be ordered in batches of five or more.
During its third fiscal quarter earnings conference call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer revealed the three month period was the best ever for education iPad sales and nearly doubled in the K-12 market.
"The iPad continues to be a great success in the U.S. education market," said Oppenheimer. "Even though, as I mentioned earlier, we achieved all-time record Mac sales to U.S. education institutions during the quarter, we sold more than twice as many iPads as Macs."
This is the second consecutive quarter where the iPad doubled sales of Macs in the education market.
Driving the iPad's high education adoption rate was the cheaper iPad 2, a carry-over model priced at $399 targeted at entry-level consumers and students. Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that while the third-generation iPad was the quarter's top seller, the legacy tablet sold just under 1 million units to educational institutions during the second calendar quarter.
Overall, Apple sold some 17 million iPads during the quarter ending in June, up from 84 percent from 9.25 million during the same period one year ago. Institutions purchased two iPads for every Mac during the three months, signaling a shift away from traditional computing to more interactive touch-based learning.
Cook goes on to say a more affordable tablet was key in garnering sales at the education level and gives much of the credit to the legacy iPad 2's new pricing scheme.
"The adoption rate of iPad in education is something I've never seen from any technology product in history," Cook said. "Usually education tends to be a fairly conservative institution in terms of buying, or K-12 does, and we're not seeing that at all on the iPad."
In describing the iPad's education potential, Oppenheimer gave an example of how schools are using the iPad in classroom mentioning that the Mansfield Texas Independent School District purchased 11,000 units slated to be used by teachers and students. MISD plans to rollout the tablets as part of its "Power Up!" initiative that aims to convert the traditional pen-and-paper learning environment to a completely paperless model.
MISD's Power Up! initiative will use 11,000 iPads.
Source: MISD
According to the Power Up! website, over 200 high school teachers and administrators have registered for iPad deployment workshops as of July 6. As part of the program teachers will upload class materials to the internet where students will be able to access the data at any time through their iPads, thus negating the need for paper handouts. Power Up! also grants students the freedom and responsibility to work collaboratively both in and out of school.
MISD's initiative is similar to a program created by the San Diego Unified School District which purchased 26,000 iPads worth $15 million in June.
Apple also announced on Tuesday that iTunes U saw over 14 million downloads during the quarter as the now-dedicated app added 700,000 new schools and 750 new courses.
The Cupertino-based company has always been aggressive in the education market and regularly offers student and teacher discounts as well as institutional discounts for bulk purchases. In 2002, Apple released an more affordable education-minded computer called the eMac which stayed in production for only three years before being axed in 2005 in lieu of across-the-board product discounts.
Apple in February unveiled a sub-$1000 13-inch MacBook Air model to take the place of the venerable white MacBook which was aimed directly at students buyers. The basic thin-and-light's pricing is offset by bulk purchases and the unit can only be ordered in batches of five or more.
Comments
This is why the iPad's momentum isn't going to slow down anytime soon
Imagine in 6 months if they drop the iPad 2s price to $299 and continue selling it as an entry level model for education? Could really see a massive shift in the education market.
More likely I think we will see the release of the 8" iPad Air. Our education customers in K-3 are buying iPads in reasonable amounts but they could be buying far more at a lower price point. A smaller iPad would easily achieve that. And with most of the users having small fingers they won't need that sandpaper Jobs was talking about....
The writing's on the wall - Apple needs to do what it did when it told thousands of high end users that iMovie Pro was better than the app bundle they had that did the job every day, call us all old fashioned, and dump the Mac. Want a desktop? Buy a PC. Hate Windows? Get used to it, or grapple with Linux. Apple really needs to focus on its profitability drivers, and the Mac is just, so, 1984. Sorted.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fearless
The writing's on the wall - Apple needs to do what it did when it told thousands of high end users that iMovie Pro was better than the app bundle they had that did the job every day, call us all old fashioned, and dump the Mac. Want a desktop? Buy a PC. Hate Windows? Get used to it, or grapple with Linux. Apple really needs to focus on its profitability drivers, and the Mac is just, so, 1984. Sorted.
Take a leaf out of ConradZitherGestan26's book and learn how to properly troll a website.
Quite the contrary, look around any uni in Australia and there's now two Macs (mostly MBPs, some MBAs) for every PC laptop. And that's recent: five years ago it was have the other way round. And iMacs dominate desktops throughout, even in Admin! Macs are doing extremely well in education and amongst professionals. The iPad (while everywhere to be seen elsewhere) hasn't taken off at universities here but only a matter of time.
BTW the Otterfish comment about small fingers (and sharper eyes) is spot on. An 8" iPad, being 20% smaller that the adult-optimised std iPad, will be perfect of primary schools, even without considering a lower unit cost.
Quote:
Originally Posted by otterfish
More likely I think we will see the release of the 8" iPad Air. Our education customers in K-3 are buying iPads in reasonable amounts but they could be buying far more at a lower price point. A smaller iPad would easily achieve that. And with most of the users having small fingers they won't need that sandpaper Jobs was talking about....
Or not given that the current iPad are selling like hotcakes. There hasn't been any major outcry demanding a smaller or cheaper iPad or schools saying they won't buy until they get one. They are looking at hardware costs of $200 a year for a device that is expected to last two years (that includes Apple Care). Heck lets assume that every iPad gets broken both times afforded with Apple Care and call it $250 a year per device. Schools often spend that much on photocopies for worksheets etc. They spend $100 minimum on a textbook that has to last 5 years without totally failing apart or $15 a year for a fresh copy for each kid that can get easily updated from year to year in terms of errata and current history etc. And so on. The costs actually aren't that different.
oh and those little kids, they are actually better off with the bigger iPad and apps with bigger buttons etc. Their hands and eyes, especially in Kindergarten, aren't ready for the small stuff. That's why they have books with words in 72pt type, jumbo pencils etc. And the 10 inch size makes it easier to enforce putting it in a bag or carrying it in two hands, thus lessening the chance of dropping it out of a one handed grip.
Pull the rug out from under these, folk. Go cheaper for education and MS will lose its stranglehold on educational ICT and world will suddenly change. School budgets aren't bottomless help them make the argument to parents and governors.
Making Pages and Numbers more effective tools and really hit MS where it hurts and make the IWork's suite a serious office alternative.
OMG, you thought I was serious?