Rumor: Cook, top Apple execs to discuss $4B iPad deal with Turkish president

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Apple CEO Tim Cook and select executives will reportedly visit Turkey in February to discuss a potential iPad in education deal worth over $4 billion, while saving time to stop by the country's first brick-and-mortar Apple Store.

erdogan
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visits Apple's Palo Alto HQ in May.


According to Turkish language publication emlakkulisi.com (machine translation), Cook will be in Turkey next year to meet with President Abdullah G?l over the country's so-called "FATIH Project," which seeks to replace blackboards and textbooks with modern computing devices.

In May, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Apple headquarters to inspect the tech giant's latest technological advancements before putting out a bid for his FATIH project.

The program's initial phase calls for the acquisition of 10.6 million tablets and could be followed by another purchase of between 2 to 2.5 million iPads. In total, the initiative is scheduled to roll out over a four-year period and is expected to cost between $3 and $4 billion.

Along with the presidential meeting, the publication claims Cook is also planning to visit Turkey's first Apple Store in Istanbul's Zorlu Center, which is set to open early next year. The over 21,500-square-foot location is said to feature an all-glass cube-like cap structure similar to the famous Fifth Avenue store in New York.

Apple is continuously pushing beyond established markets like the U.S. and Europe, apparently concentrating efforts on developing economies. Istanbul's brick-and-mortar Apple Store will be Apple's second official retail presence in Turkey, following October's debut of the Turkish Online Apple Store.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 28
    Turkey is a fascinating culture. This could be quite a coup for Apple.
  • Reply 2 of 28
    Wow, That would be an awesome deal.

    1 Country, 2 Countries, 3 Countries, 4...
    1 Tablet, 2 Tablets, 3 Tablets, 4...
    1 TV, 2 TVs, 3 TVs, 4...

    This could be the start of something big.
    Imagine every elementary school and every university using iOS devices... with private, customizable iTunesU like teaching platform... integrating iPads, TVs, iBooks etc...

    Apple has all the needed components.
  • Reply 3 of 28
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Hasn't this deal been in the works for awhile? Any chance the B&M store wouldn't have happened if not for the Turkish government being keen on getting a huge deal with Apple?
  • Reply 4 of 28

    Apparently nobody reads the news... major corruption scandal over the past few days involving Erdo?an's cabinet, leading to anti-government street protests, violence, and blaming the West. iPads are probably the last thing on his mind right now.

  • Reply 5 of 28
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by DanielSW View Post



    Turkey is a fascinating culture. This could be quite a coup for Apple.

    My sister lived there for a few years and loved it. I read a recent article in the "Off Duty" section of the Saturday WSJ and don't remember which "fashion designer" said it but Istanbul was his favorite city to vacation in. 

     

    I'll have to check it one day! :) Don't want to sound too judgmental, but it's probably the only muslim country I would consider going to. The rest seem to sh*tholes. Egypt certainly was.

  • Reply 6 of 28
    danielsw wrote: »
    Turkey is a fascinating culture.

    Little known fact: Turkey's highway system is built on the rooftops of all their buildings.
  • Reply 7 of 28
    solipsismx wrote: »
    Hasn't this deal been in the works for awhile? Any chance the B&M store wouldn't have happened if not for the Turkish government being keen on getting a huge deal with Apple?

    Yeah, this has been going on for years… Surf Fatih project...
  • Reply 8 of 28
    I sometimes ponder the effect of Itunes U on other countries. I imagine some half killed kid getting a peek at something he is intensely interested in and thereby becoming his full potential in the world, maybe an important genius. iPads are so good they have also revealed that many autistic kids have quite a bit of intelligence, they just needed the right tool.
  • Reply 9 of 28

    Apple and Turkey eating Android for Thanksgiving dinner. For desert, we'll be having KitKats.

  • Reply 10 of 28

    It is strange …

    While some European and Asians countries gear themselves with the best there are out there, the USA government is searching for the cheapest available, and even Flouts Its Own Advice in Procuring Overseas Clothing ( from The NYTimes ).

  • Reply 11 of 28
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    The biggest surprise here is the size of the Turkish Apple Store.
  • Reply 12 of 28
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    Thankfully, several of my apps have already been translated into Turikish. :)

  • Reply 13 of 28
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    richl wrote: »
    Thankfully, several of my apps have already been translated into Turikish. :)

    Is that similar to Turkish?
  • Reply 14 of 28
    Erdogan could be in prison before this goes through :)

    I'm sure turkey is a lovely culture as long as you're not a Kurdish political prisoner.
  • Reply 15 of 28
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dagmarpiano View Post



    Erdogan could be in prison before this goes through image



    I'm sure turkey is a lovely culture as long as you're not a Kurdish political prisoner.

     

     

    I am sure the USA is a lovely Democracy, is that WHAT you meant?

    As long you are not in Gitmo., or … forgot the thousands killed in the Philippines, Mexico, Iraq, Vietnam, Drone collateral, Chilean dictatorial regime victims, …

    Should i continue?

     

    Yes, Turkey leaders did perpetrate barbarian acts in the past, so did the Japanese, the USA, Europeans, etc…

     

    Santa ignorance.

  • Reply 16 of 28
    Hopefully these Turkish politicians won't be that foolish. As the problems with iPads in LA schools demonstrate, we've yet to sort out how to handle school-based tablets in this country. In poorer countries, the money will end up being a terrible waste.

    Making technology school-based is the key problem. School teachers are not particularly tech-literate, meaning huge training costs for them. And school-owned tablets create all sorts of issues, including who is responsible for breakage and theft.

    Family-based tech makes far more sense. There's less waste. Kids, for instance, can inherit stuff from their parent. Parents can also deal with those issues far better than often clueless school bureaucrats.

    But to deal with that, we need to deal with a host of other social ills such as divorce and out-of-wedlock births--ills Charles Murray describes in Coming Apart. Oddly, if you look at Apple, from the executive suites at Apple down to ordinary staff, you'll find an emphasis on family-based technology is the rule. No one sits around saying, "If only my school would get more technology." They do it themselves and they make it work.

    That's one of the points Charles Murray makes. He notes that by statistics such as divorce and single parenthood, all segments of society fell apart in the sixties. But he goes on to point out that those middle-class and above saw what a disaster that was and made corrections. It's at the blue-collar level and below (what Murray inelegantly calls Fishtown) that no corrections were made. More important, our society as a whole failed to make any effort to 'impose middle-class morality' on them.

    That's the root cause of a host of ills that we've all seen if we are not blind. And those ills are most emphatically not going to be corrected by tossing out iPad willy-nilly. Apple itself ought to be saying that rather than making its $140 billion bank accounts still fatter stirring up these useless iPad sales.

    --Michael W. Perry, My Nights with Leukemia: Caring for Children with Cancer
  • Reply 17 of 28
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dagmarpiano View Post



    Erdogan could be in prison before this goes through image



    I'm sure turkey is a lovely culture as long as you're not a Kurdish political prisoner.

    Or a journalist: they lead even China and Iran in the number of journalists in political prison.

     

    As to the concept: electronic texts are sort of inevitable so I wish them all the best in sorting out the issues (perhaps learning from both L.A. and the districts where the iPad introduction has gone well) and aiding their students to achieve as best they can.

  • Reply 18 of 28
    rwesrwes Posts: 200member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Inkling View Post



    Hopefully these Turkish politicians won't be that foolish. As the problems with iPads in LA schools demonstrate, we've yet to sort out how to handle school-based tablets in this country. In poorer countries, the money will end up being a terrible waste.



    Making technology school-based is the key problem. School teachers are not particularly tech-literate, meaning huge training costs for them. And school-owned tablets create all sorts of issues, including who is responsible for breakage and theft.



    Family-based tech makes far more sense. There's less waste. Kids, for instance, can inherit stuff from their parent. Parents can also deal with those issues far better than often clueless school bureaucrats.



    But to deal with that, we need to deal with a host of other social ills such as divorce and out-of-wedlock births--ills Charles Murray describes in Coming Apart. Oddly, if you look at Apple, from the executive suites at Apple down to ordinary staff, you'll find an emphasis on family-based technology is the rule. No one sits around saying, "If only my school would get more technology." They do it themselves and they make it work.



    That's one of the points Charles Murray makes. He notes that by statistics such as divorce and single parenthood, all segments of society fell apart in the sixties. But he goes on to point out that those middle-class and above saw what a disaster that was and made corrections. It's at the blue-collar level and below (what Murray inelegantly calls Fishtown) that no corrections were made. More important, our society as a whole failed to make any effort to 'impose middle-class morality' on them.



    That's the root cause of a host of ills that we've all seen if we are not blind. And those ills are most emphatically not going to be corrected by tossing out iPad willy-nilly. Apple itself ought to be saying that rather than making its $140 billion bank accounts still fatter stirring up these useless iPad sales.



    --Michael W. Perry, My Nights with Leukemia: Caring for Children with Cancer

     

    I want to start by saying, I don't totally disagree with your points.

     

    The little bit I read about the LA schools rollout indicated that it was the decision of someone there, to not implement a full blown MDM, due to cost, that lead to their headaches.

     

    I agree that school teachers aren't always tech-literate, but that's chaging (I believe, as it should). In these times, they've got to begin to be, even slightly, otherwise more capable teachers elsewhere (domestic & non-domestic) will probably be able to provide more, and better address the needs of their students, which will lead to the disparity in our schools systems that we currently already see.

     

    As far as our social ills, we live in a democracy (I'm assuming you do as well), where people have the right to make their own decisions, whether they be right, or wrong. I agree that people can make some very wrong decisions (myself included). Unfortunately, all we can do is educate a child and hope they grow into a person knowledgeable enough to make the right choices. I don't believe it'll ever happen across enough of the population that, as a species, we'll be able to pad ourselves on our backs, at least not for a while (if ever), but it is what it is. Education aside, we'll always have our free radials; I know people who I would have never thought would have gotten divorced and have, and the opposite.

     

    You OR I, shouldn't be telling others how to behave or live their lives. We can make suggestions/recommendations and let others know that it could possibly make them happier, but that's all that I believe is right to do. Besides, something that makes you or I happy (a solid marriage maybe?) may not be for someone else. We're all just too different and that's just one thing that bothers me about people that don't realize that. I'm not saying you're that way, but for the people who are - Understand that other people are not like you. Their brain, my brain, isn't wired the same way. What gives you pleasure and makes your life fulfilling may not do the same for others and you need to learn to accept that (here I am telling someone else how to behave). I enjoy driving way above the speed limit and I feel safe doing it, and I do it safely, but I understand and accept that it's illegal, makes others uncomfortable, and dangerous. I enjoy hours in front of the computer, coding and/or reading tech news, but others couldn't care less about coding or tech.

     

    Apple could possibly do more than "tossing out iPad's willy-nilly", but who's to say that'll work? Others may and will argue that iPad's and other tablets/tech are an improvement and will turn things around...

     

    We live in a world that's not perfect, and never will be. We can strive to make it better, but it'll never be perfect, and better is relative.

     

    I consider myself an optimist/realist.

  • Reply 19 of 28

    Apple waited way to long to enter the Turkish market. In 2014, I am sure that the longest lines for new iPhones, iPads will be at the Turkish Apple Store. Apple is most widely used brand in upper-mid class in Turkey, which is the most important buyer group in my opinon.

     

    I am pretty sure that there will not be an $10 million iPad deal with iPad. Turkey recently chose a Chinese air defense system over an American one despite pressure from USA and NATO. The main reason was the technology transfer with USA companies not willing to share any know how. (export license, etc.)

     

    Apple has to establish some kind of technology center, or a factory in Turkey. Otherwise, the FATIH tablet will be a very cheap chinese tablet with Android installed. 

  • Reply 20 of 28
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    palomine wrote: »
    I sometimes ponder the effect of Itunes U on other countries. I imagine some half killed kid getting a peek at something he is intensely interested in and thereby becoming his full potential in the world, maybe an important genius. iPads are so good they have also revealed that many autistic kids have quite a bit of intelligence, they just needed the right tool.

    Err no, iPad hasn't revealed anything that wasn't already known. Many autistic people have exceptional intelligence and depending upon how they are impacted can be very functional people. Many mathematicians have what might be called a form of autism. Today the iPad has revealed something that is already known isn't helpful. It is good though that it is an alternative form of communications with these people.
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