Apple No Longer Teacher’s Pet
When the technology team at Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach decided to build computer labs at all its elementary schools in 1986, the machine of choice was obvious. The Apple.
More than a decade later, it is time to start replacing several hundred machines. But now, the checks aren’t being made out to Apple Computer.
“We only buy PCs with Windows 95,” said Alice Fairchild, a technology staff developer for the district. “The thinking is we should teach on the same type of computer that the rest of the world is using.”
When the popular Apple II was introduced in the early 1980s, the company quickly became teachers’ pet because its computers were easy to use and had a host of hot software.
But in the last few years, Apple has been losing its edge in one of its core markets--the classroom.
This year, for the first time, the majority of computers purchased by U.S. schools will be PCs, not Apples, according to a 1997 study by International Data Corp.
After years of financial problems, the company has had some recent success in desktop publishing. It also hopes to recapture its dominance over education with a new line of inexpensive computers to be unveiled this year.
Yet critics wonder if the effort comes too late.
Apple’s hardware competitors, as well as software leader Microsoft, are now aggressively courting educators with discounts, special classroom products and presentations at teacher and parent conferences.
Although Apple remains the dominate brand among the lower grades, analysts say it has already lost the battle in the high schools. Nearly 65% of all the computers installed at U.S. secondary schools are Windows- or DOS-based machines, according to the International Data study.
“Apple’s position in academia is in serious jeopardy,” said James Staten, a research analyst with Dataquest Inc. “Considering that the company has refocused its business and is betting a huge portion of their future on education, it can’t afford to lose the schools.”
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From its earliest days, Apple was committed to turning computers into good teaching tools. But critics say Apple, comfortable with its lead position, failed to realize that educators needed more than pricey machines and an elite attitude. Instead, analysts say, schools longed for cheaper technology.
Educators say they first noticed the shift to PCs at the college level. Last year, Yale University warned incoming freshmen that it might not be able to provide support if the students brought Macs to school. Stanford University, a well-known cheerleader of Apple, whose headquarters are in nearby Cupertino, has seen the number of computer science students bringing Macs drop by about 50% in the last couple of years.
Though most Southern California schools have both types of machines, a small and growing number of campuses are switching to a purely PC platform. Some say the pressure to change comes from parents and school board members who use PCs in the business world, and others cite a need for schools to cut costs and streamline their technologies.
“The difference between the ‘80s and now is the amount of software--great, inexpensive software--written for Windows 95,” said Paul O’Driscoll, director of technology and information services for Salem Keizer School District, Oregon’s second-largest.
“Teachers care more about the applications than the platform, and so do a lot of students,” O’Driscoll said. “I’d say our [PC] purchases this year outnumber Apple 100 to 1.”
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Overall, Apple still controls a majority share of the education market--but just barely. For the 1996-97 school year, the computer maker had a 53% chunk of all the machines in the overall K-12 arena, according to the International Data study. That marks a steady drop from 60% in 1993.
PC manufacturers--notably Dell Computer, Gateway 2000, IBM and Compaq Computer--have jumped from 35% of the market in 1993 to nearly 45% now, according to the report.
“It’s the old Apples that are the first to go,” said Dean Waldfogel, deputy superintendent of curriculum and instruction for Irvine Unified School District. The district has switched all 31 of its schools to a PC platform.
“A lot of those machines carried over from the ‘80s, and teachers want and need more computing power today,” Waldfogel said.
Apple officials acknowledge having lost market share in education--particularly in secondary schools--and say they hope to turn the situation around as they continue to improve the company’s overall financial results.
“The PC makers are looking toward schools for the same reason bank robbers rob banks--this is where the money is,” said Michael Metz, director of education solutions and services for Apple. “They don’t care about education. All they care about is selling more boxes.”
Indeed, education has evolved into a lucrative market. School budgets are always tight, but politicians campaigning on the “smart education” platform are now finding ways to pay.
The Federal Universal Service Program uses phone company revenues to help wire schools, libraries and health clinics to the Internet. The effort, which will spend up to $2.25 billion annually, began distributing money to applicants nationwide in January.
In California, the Digital High School program is a $500-million project designed to boost computer technology and training in the classroom. The four-year program, which was launched in 1997, has already handed out the first $100 million to schools. Several other states, specifically Ohio and Texas, have launched equally ambitious efforts.
Los Angeles Unified School District has about $325 million set aside to bolster technological infrastructure in its schools. The bond money, which voters approved through Proposition BB, will help pay for building campuswide computer networks.
For many Southern California campuses--particularly those in the larger districts--the decision on what machine to buy is up to the individual school.
At Los Angeles Unified, teachers usually know better what they need in the classroom than do far-removed administrators, said Andy Rogers, coordinator for the district’s information technology division.
But when a school wants to make a significant investment in technology, such as linking all its computers together, some administrators prefer to use a single platform.
That can mean bad news for Apple, as the people making the money decisions--the parents and school administrators who may not have owned a computer in the ‘80s, during Apple’s heyday--will often be more accustomed to using a Windows-based machine, analysts say.
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This was the case in Irvine. Before 1995, about 75% of all the computers in the district’s 31 schools were made by Apple. Then the district decided to link its campuses together through a wide-area network, which would allow students and teachers from different sites to swap information.
“Apple wanted to build the network,” said Waldfogel, the deputy superintendent. “They presented us literature that training costs on the Macintosh were less” than for PCs.
Instead, the school board opted to go with a Windows-based operating system by Novell, and vowed to buy only PCs in the future. The change was made because a board member’s company--which owned systems with both platforms--had recently switched over to a PC-only network.
“Parents want to have a say in what their children do in school,” said Staten, the analyst at Dataquest.
He noted that Apple controlled less than 2% of the U.S. business market for the first three quarters of 1997. Its overall market share in U.S. hardware sales slipped from 6.6% in 1996 to 4.3% last year, according to Apple’s recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“If there’s a PC at home and a PC at work, they may not understand why there’s a Macintosh in the classroom,” Staten said.
Teachers in Irvine, many of whom are loyal to their Apples, say they have tried to fight the decision--and failed. Some instructors complain about having to learn how to use new software and that they are having trouble figuring out ways to incorporate the programs into their lesson plans.
“Our decision was an economic one, not a religious one,” said Waldfogel. “We have about 1,400 machines, so we had to choose one platform or the other. It became very clear that we couldn’t afford to keep a support staff for both.”
Apple executives insist that outside forces account for some of its current scholastic troubles.
Throughout this decade, the company has had limited success competing in the home PC market. Part of the problem was the emergence of Windows 95, which made PCs easier to use and graphic-oriented--just like Apple’s machines.
As the company struggled to broaden its market, its focus on the education market wavered and its competitors spotted an opportunity.
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Education has become a lucrative arena for the computer industry. Analysts say the nation’s primary and secondary schools spend about $4.5 billion a year on technology and that the number of computers used in public classrooms has risen 186% since 1992.
Several manufacturers have either launched or bolstered their internal education teams in the last couple of years. Compaq initially broke onto the academic scene in 1994, but it didn’t start expanding its staff until two years ago. And last year Dell launched an education division with a staff of 250.
A joint venture between Toshiba and Microsoft has supplied software-loaded laptops to more than 170 schools in the last two years. And earlier this month, both Compaq and Dell announced they would release a series of computer server packages aimed directly at the school market.
“This is a good business and there are opportunities out there. There’s also an industrywide desire for brand loyalty,” said Phil Atwood, an IBM manager of PC strategy for education. “You’re looking to make an impact on students for their future buying habits. Whether it’s Coke machines on campus or IBMs in the dorms, businesses are all looking to hook into that lifelong loyalty.”
This sentiment should sound familiar to Apple executives, as their company was founded partly on this concept: Get in the schools first, appeal to kids early, and hope they will buy Apple products throughout their adult years.
But it was the publishing world--not education--that helped lead the company’s recent return to profitability. Apple has made the high-end creative field--such as desktop publishers, multimedia artists and companies that create content for the World Wide Web--one of its key priorities.
Unlike the way it works in other markets, the software vendors who make publishing titles produce their Mac versions either at the same time--or, often, even before--they release their Windows versions.
Publishers have responded, boosting sales of Apple’s new G3 machines.
Confident they can fight the education slippage, Apple employees point to their firm’s recent success in publishing as a sign of a corporate-wide turnaround.
“Both our publishing and educational customers tend to be very, very loyal,” said Metz, the company’s director of education solutions. “Teachers know what they like, and that’s Apple products.”
Right now, Apple is working on machines it hopes will tempt the 40% of the market that is now buying under-$1,000 PCs, Metz said. Though the company declined to talk about its coming products, industry watchers hint that the computer maker is going to launch an inexpensive line of network machines.
Analysts say Apple could reaffirm its education stance with a new all-in-one machine, an updated version of the company’s classic Macintosh SE design that will carry a price tag of only $1,500.
Officials declined to confirm or deny that. Critics note that Apple has previously tried to develop a cheaper solution, with very much mixed results.
In 1994, it started signing deals with clone makers to license its Macintosh operating system. By letting other companies sell cheaper versions of its machines, Apple hoped to slow its declining market share by getting more people to use its operating system.
Yet Apple’s struggles continued after the licensing deals. Instead of broadening the company’s market, observers say, the clone makers siphoned off customers.
Interim chief executive Steve Jobs dropped the program last August, saying the clone makers wouldn’t pay Apple enough to license the operating system and that the plan had been at the root of Apple’s shaky financial health.
And then there’s the eMate, a scaled-down portable computer launched last spring and aimed at the youth market. Analysts praised the machine’s ergonomic design and its price tag--about $800.
Many experts questioned whether teachers, looking to run sophisticated multimedia products, would want to use the small computer because of its black-and-white screen and its less-powerful microprocessor.
Apple unexpectedly announced last month that it had discontinued the operating system used by the eMate, as well as the product line itself. Jobs said the company needed to cut back its product line and focus its resources on the Macintosh line.
When it comes to a desktop computer, “we don’t have the same low costs as our competitors--yet,” Metz said. “But you’re going to see some changes in that direction.”
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Losing Ground
Although there are more Apple computers than PCs being used in schools in 1997, new sales point to Apple Computer is losing its stronghold in the U.S. education market.
NEW SALES
Apple’s share of the U.S. education market based on annual revenue:
1997: 30.4%
WHAT’S IN USE
Type of computers in use at various grade levels, 1996-97:
PCs Apples
High school: PCs 65.3%; Apples 34.7%
Middle school/junior high: PCs 45.9%; Apples 54.1%
Elementary: PCs 36.7%; Apples 63.3
All levels: PCs 47.1; Apples 52.9
Source: Dataquest, IDC/LINK’s 1997 K-12 School Technology Survey
Researched by JANICE L. JONES/Los Angeles Times
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VOICES
‘We only but PCs with Windows 95. The thinking is we should teach on the same type of computer that the rest of the world is using.’
Alice Fairchild, technology staff developer, Ocean View School District, Huntington Beach.
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‘You’re looking to make an impact on students for their future buying habits. Whether it’s Coke machines on campus or IBMs in the dorms, businesses are all looking to hook into that lifelong loyalty.’
Phil Atwood, manager of PC strategy for education, IBM.
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‘The PC makers are looking toward schools for the same reason bank robbers rob banks--this is where the money is. They don’t care about education. All they care about is selling more boxes.’
Michael Metz, director of education solutions and services, Apple Computer.
