As the Apple Turns: Scene 4229: The iPearl Of The Orient (9/25/03)

The iPearl Of The Orient (9/25/03)

Occasional news of Apple wins in the education market continue; in addition to the high-profile G5 supercomputer being slapped together at Virginia Tech, in recent weeks there have also been reports of Macs-for-every-student deals with districts in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Alaska. (Time for Sesame Street, kiddies! "Three of these things belong together, three of these things are kinda the same...") Not that we're surprised, or anything; back when he gave his Frednote, CFO Anderson revealed that similar deals of varying sizes had hit triple digits, though Apple didn't plan to publicize most of them. It's just nice to hear that not every school district in this country has administrators as brain-dead as those in Pinellas County, Florida. (Tossing Macs to save money, hmmmm? Do us a favor, guys-- show us the tech support bill in a year so we can beat you about the head and shoulders with it. Assuming we can lift it, that is.)

But okay, sure, Apple's still got a reasonable foothold in the education market in this country, but what about schools in other far-flung nations-- nations such as Austria, New Zealand, or Texas? Well, we've got bupkis on any of those countries, but faithful viewer Satan Baby (awwww, Mom must be so proud) whanged us over the head with an article in Asahi Shimbun that reports on the University of Tokyo's mass migration to a slew-and-a-half of brand new Macs.

The University of Tokyo. Tokyo.

It's in Japan.

They used to talk about going on leave there on M*A*S*H.

Ah, there's the spark of recognition! So yeah, like we said, the U. of Tokyo is apparently ditching a whole mess of x86 Linux boxes in favor of The Macintosh Way. We say "apparently" because we can't read Japanese and the Babel Fish translation of the article doesn't seem to be working properly right this second, so we're just taking Mac Rumors's word for it. Reportedly "approximately 1,150 PCs will be switched to iMacs and most of the servers will also be supplied by Apple." Why, you ask (as if you didn't know)? The University cites the Mac's way-simple approach to software installation and maintenance as the primary reason for the switch. Can somebody please send one of these guys down to Pinellas County to distribute a clue or two?

Now, we're not going to pretend to know a whole heckuva lot about the University of Tokyo, but we're pretty sure that this is officially a Big Deal™; aside from the simple revenue and unit sales boost a single 1,150-Mac transaction represents, we get the distinct impression that when the University of Tokyo's score on the Japanese Higher Education Prestige Scale is converted to U.S. units, it sits closer to the Harvard/Yale side of the curve than that of, say, the Mooseburger Camp of Clown Arts Education. (No offense to all of the Mooseburger alumni out there, of course. Go Fighting Antler-Donkeys!) Here's hoping this deal jump-starts a massive wave of Japanese higher-ed Mac purchases, much like the Henrico County iBook deal seems to have catalyzed the K-12 U.S. market.

Apple's next conquest: bartending schools in Zagreb. Hot, hot, hot!

SceneLink (4229)

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The above scene was taken from the 9/25/03 episode:

September 25, 2003: Dell previews a decidedly iPodian MP3 player and the Dell Music Store to boot. Meanwhile, the University of Tokyo ditches a ton of Linux boxes for Macs, and the RIAA drops its third-of-a-billion-dollar lawsuit against an alleged gangsta rap-sharing grandma when someone points out that Kazaa isn't available for the Mac...

Other scenes from that episode:

4228: No One Ever Called 'Em Shy (9/25/03) Okay, just a quick question to lead this off, folks: how the heck is it that we still find ourselves surprised by stuff like this? We already knew days ago that Dell was planning to announce its own digital music player today, and we've known forever that Mike Dell copies Steve Jobs's every move roughly two years after the fact...
4230: Mac Granny Thug Fo' Shiznit (9/25/03) An unplanned alien abduction and our ensuing three-and-a-half-hour window of "lost time" has plunged any semblance of a schedule today into the throes of higgledy-piggledom, and truth be told, at this point we'd probably rather put some ice on our subcutaneous neck chips and call it a day...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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