Historically, even though its overall market share has never been higher than perhaps 10%, Apple has dominated two important markets: graphics creation and education. During Apple's "bad patch" a few years back, both of those markets started to shift towards Windows; some graphics professionals wanted the "stability" of Windows NT, and many schools simply couldn't afford Macs. And everybody was nervous about buying a computer made by a "dying company." Now that Apple's mostly back on its feet, it's had to try to stem the defection of those two markets. Perhaps the biggest single move to retain creative users was the release of the Power Mac G3, which delivered unprecedented performance for a reasonable price. We haven't seen anything very exciting to keep the educational customers, though. But that's changing.

First of all, the iMac may be a consumer desktop machine, but it's pretty well suited to educational lab use as well, and its low cost is a big factor when schools go shopping for new computers. According to an Apple press release coinciding with this week's Florida Educational Technology Conference, the Mac still reigns supreme in major school districts in Texas, New York, and Wisconsin, who have all just purchased large numbers of Mac systems, including iMacs. Stephen Brown, the coordinator of New York's Project Smart Schools, is quoted as saying that not only are iMacs easy to use and maintain, but "also, iMac colors are powerful and creative and the students are excited about having these great-looking computers in their classrooms." That's a big issue. If you're a third-graders, which would you rather use: a beige box, or a purple egg that you can see through? Thought so. Throw in a $5000 Mac OS X Server with its NetBoot capabilities and you've got a network administrator's dream come true.

Then there's the P1, Apple's much-awaited consumer portable that will also be very much an educational portable. Remember the eMate? That brightly-colored, translucent clamshell Newton was light, shock-proof, and cool enough so that kids wanted to use them. And at about $800 apiece, schools could afford them. Unfortunately, Apple nixed the whole Newton project and there's still nothing to fill the eMate's void. But when the low-cost, iMac-styled, G3-powered P1 is announced (hopefully within the next month), that may change quickly-- especially if rumors of battery life that last for an entire school day without a recharge are true. And how much do you want to bet that the P1 will also support NetBoot from Mac OS X Server? That could be very neat.