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Ruling The Schools (3/9/00)
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It's March, and you know what that means, right? That's right, the annual Florida Educational Technology Conference, and Apple's requisite press release reaffirming its lead in the education market. Every year it's like clockwork-- the FETC rolls around, Apple announces some new education initiative-- like the Apple Store for Education, or that new "Apple Learning Solutions" series that we got this year-- and somewhere along the line comes the inevitable news that Apple's still beating the tar out of the competition when it comes to selling computers to schools.
This year, we were a little concerned, since the FETC wrapped up a week ago and we still hadn't seen the "Apple Still Rules" press release. But fear not-- better late than never. It finally showed up, and once again, Apple's able to trumpet its lofty position; according to International Data Corp., Apple's share of the education pie for the fourth quarter of last year was 30.6%, "double its closest competitor." And for all of the 1999 calendar year, Apple was also on top, with 23.6%. Gotta love the fact that Apple's share was higher at the end of the year, right? It bodes well for growth.
Now, while this is great news, we can't help but see some clouds under that silver lining. (So we've got a dark side. Sue us.) 30.6% is nothing to sneeze at, certainly, but we'd swear that it used to be much higher than that. For a while there, if a computer was in a school, it was pretty much guaranteed to wear an Apple logo. If three out of ten computers sold to schools last quarter were Macs, that means the other seven were not. How can Steve expect to indoctrinate the youth of America into his plans for world domination with so many Wintel systems diluting the Mac's presence in our schools? We think it's time for a killer education product to get those numbers pumping again; how about special low-cost iBooks with AirPort built in, sold in five-packs like the old eMates? Cut corners to get the per-unit price under $1000 and schools will flock to buy these "mobile computer labs." Hey, just a suggestion. Anything to further The Cause.
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SceneLink (2145)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 3/9/00 episode: March 9, 2000: Apple finally acknowledges a nasty iBook/PowerBook bug that scrambles data like eggs for breakfast. Meanwhile, Macs still reign supreme in the educational sales numbers, but there's plenty of room for improvement, and while the iMac knockoff war is supposedly over, when "modified" E-Powers and eOnes hit the shelves, you may find yourself wondering just who won...
Other scenes from that episode: 2144: Pssst... There's A Bug. (3/9/00) Finally, the truth comes out! Apple has finally acknowledged the nasty iBook disk corruption bug, which has apparently been present in every iBook to roll off the line since day one. As far as bugs go, this is one of the more serious in Apple's checkered history; afflicted systems can't boot up, instead displaying the dreaded flashing folder icon indicating that no boot device was found... 2146: The "Millennium" Look (3/9/00) Ah, the day after... That wonderful time when yesterday's good news becomes consumed in the ominous Shadow of Doubt™. This time, people are looking more closely at Apple's jubilant announcement that it had secured "worldwide injunctions" against those who stole its iMac design and issued cheap knockoffs...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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