Apple Launches $999 iMac for Educational Institutions

[Ohanmer]

Good Deal for Education Systems

These new iMacs may not be that powerful, or much less expensive, but when bought in bulk by Educational Institutes, plenty of money can be saved. Also, many Educational Institutes run all their accounts off a single server, so the iMacs would only have to be powerful enough to run Remote Desktop.

 

[spillproof]

Interesting. My university just bought 10 cheap-o HP TouchSmarts for quick printing purposes in the library.

Touching is so much easier then a mouse.

 

[Sequin]

That's one expensive desktop for being 'low end'.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Only communist labor can aid this.

 

[gnasher729]

Is this a serious post? It can't be.

Windows is Windows, that's the beauty of it. How can it be easier to train someone to use a totally different OS to one they are already familiar with?

If you can use Windows XP, then you don't need to be trained how to use Windows Vista or Windows 7. You just have to learn to use some of the newer features which should take about 10 mins.

My experience is absolutely the opposite. People who bought a laptop with Vista asked me to put Windows on it. (Which meant Windows XP). On the other hand, I've never met anyone who couldn't just use my MacBook, without any help.

 

[lehite]

LOL
Well the high school where my wife works uses BLENDER, PS5, dream weaver, Solid works, Autocad, master cam, painter pro 12, maya, adobe premiere 9,bryce, protools for the new recording studio they just built. I know there is more but can't remember them all.

They use Autocad for a recording studio?

 

[CrackedButter]

These are institutional machines, and low-end ones at that. I doubt 99+% of them will never see an external display. People who want external displays tend to want higher spec'ed Macs as well.

I think you missed my point, and the topic at hand, it HAS display port, but not Thunderbolt (ThunderBolt is more than just a technology for external displays as well. On the outside they look the same and are contracted the same AND the cabling itself is what allows the bi-directional transfer (aside from another chip in the Mac), so whats the point in the market segmentation (by not including said chip) and what happens when Jimmy brings his ThunderBolt enabled hard drive to Uni and finds out it doesn't work?

Ports that look the same but don't work in the same way. Pointless cost cutting from a company that last week had more money than the US government last week, yeah that makes sense!

 

[Sequin]

A lot of courses teach software on Macs. For example, photography, video editing and design. Why? Because that's what students will use when they go out into The Real World. Not teaching these students to use Photoshop or Premiere on a Mac would put them at a huge disadvantage.

I actually don't agree with this. Macs used to be the best for majors in the arts, but today you can do perfectly fine using a Windows computer. I grew up doing web design without a Mac and never had a problem. It doesn't hinder your ability to edit anything. Macs are beautiful computers, but you can do just as well without one and save a lot of money.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

I guess educational institutions don't need Thunderbolt (or USB3 in lieu of it for that matter). Hell, they could get an i3 Windows PC with USB3 for $299 ($399 with monitor). I don't see this as very competitive. But I'm sure colleges that used Apple before will eat it up anyway. That's what people do. They keep paying Apple to put out mediocre crap.

 

[JAT]

They are well on their way.

http://www.apple.com/business/

Please. That's like the App Store, which only came about because customers demanded it. People are actually using iDevices for "work", so Apple threw up a webpage to validate them, do a little more marketing.

I've been a fan a lot longer than you, man. They DO NOT cater to business. And I find it stupid. It's half the reason the world is in this state, and it's the entire reason Apple was in a poor state in the late 90s.* M$ catered to business, catered to IT guys, before we called them IT.

* And this has been the case under all their CEOs. So, it's not just Steve's fault, despite what the 'net will say.

 

[baypharm]

Of course, it's only 999. It has an i3 processor....

 

[boonlar]

Of course, it's only 999. It has an i3 processor....

ONLY? hahah you can get an i3 PC for like $400. I can't believe schools even consider macs. What a terrible waste of tax dollars! Then they go and complain about their budgets. Government and schools should literally be banned from buying anything from Apple. Not only that but the stuff they buy doesn't last as long as PCs. Remember the white macbooks? Those things literally fell apart and crack into pieces. Huge waste of tax money. Thinkpads on the other hand last for years in the hands of clumsy kids.

 

[Certinfy]

Still seems too much. I used to be an assistant teacher while doing a course a few years back and I was with some secondary/high school kids and I took them to a room full of brand new iMacs and besides a few of them most were absolutely clueless about what they were doing or even how to use them, eventually spoke to the main teacher about it and got them all to use W7 laptops instead which all of them found a lot easier. Maybe just a UK thing though but still I have no idea why that school would have spent so much money on those iMacs where as they could have bought new PCs since the ones they had were a few years old besides the laptops that were quite new.

 

[lilo777]

I guess educational institutions don't need Thunderbolt (or USB3 in lieu of it for that matter). Hell, they could get an i3 Windows PC with USB3 for $299 ($399 with monitor). I don't see this as very competitive. But I'm sure colleges that used Apple before will eat it up anyway. That's what people do. They keep paying Apple to put out mediocre crap.

Of course, schools can always lay off a couple of teachers to find money for Macs

 

[eye]

Universities will definitely buy them. Colleges will buy them. Those places are money trees with many many ways to generate revenue. Some private K-12 schools as well.

Public schools? Not many. I'm a teacher and decisions at this moment are not made based on long term success or quality or, unfortunately, educating. Every decision right now is made to save a buck. If it continues this way, well, I'll just say we'll reap what we sow.

 

[lilo777]

Universities will definitely buy them. Colleges will buy them. Those places are money trees with many many ways to generate revenue. Some private K-12 schools as well.

Public schools? Not many. I'm a teacher and decisions at this moment are not made based on long term success or quality or, unfortunately, educating. Every decision right now is made to save a buck. If it continues this way, well, I'll just say we'll reap what we sow.

I assume that your pessimism was not caused by schools not buying Macs, right? Because if schools really want to prepare children for business life they have to teach them Windows - that's the OS they will use at work.

 

[eye]

I assume that your pessimism was not caused by schools not buying Macs, right? Because if schools really want to prepare children for business life they have to teach them Windows - that's the OS they will use at work.

No, that's not it at all. It's much bigger than computers. But, I'm just saying it won't even be considered by almost all K-12 schools.

 

[Illumination]

At my high school, all of the laptops are iBook G4s. The desktops are either newer iMacs, eMacs, or iMac G3s (yes, G3). These iMacs are more than sufficient for education. Why bother purchasing nice computers when they're going to be beaten, abused, and become used chewing gum fields once placed in public schools?

 

[MrNomNoms]

I can't see this being popular, bearing in mind that the vast majority of schools and universities, at least here in the UK, are still based around Windows. And the fact that a model with a vastly better processor is only $150 more.

The university I was at was a mixed environment - funny enough a large number of students never knew there were Mac's until signs were put up around the university of the Mac labs being open to everyone. The question isn't whether the universities have or haven't got something but whether there is a demand by the students for something - at the end of the day the equipment chosen in many cases is a reflection of not only the course provided but also what the students prefer using as well.

With that being said I really question the long term viability of large labs of desktops given that the two universities I attended almost every man and his dog had a laptop with the university IT store giving in many cases interest free loans for students linked up to their student allowance and student loans. My last year of university for example the only labs that were really being used were for high end specialty software that cost a tonne of money (engineering, design etc) with most students using their own laptops and hooked up to the campus wide wireless network.

 

[boonlar]

My college has Pentium 4 Dell GX280s in the labs and they are perfectly fine. I'm glad my school doesn't throw money away on iMacs or the tuition would be higher.

 

[greenmeanie]

Oh so what you're telling us you can't teach unless you have a mac?
Sounds like they need to hire another teacher.

Universities will definitely buy them. Colleges will buy them. Those places are money trees with many many ways to generate revenue. Some private K-12 schools as well.

Public schools? Not many. I'm a teacher and decisions at this moment are not made based on long term success or quality or, unfortunately, educating. Every decision right now is made to save a buck. If it continues this way, well, I'll just say we'll reap what we sow.

 

[ciociosan]

i understand the notion of bulk purchases, and the effect that the pricepoint difference has, but this is still sadly underpowered. apple'd be much better off releasing a mac mini with a similar discount. schools can afford macs, but apple's overpriced displays? no way.

 

[applebook]

Who's dumb enough to get this over the substantially superior $1149 model? Anyone??? ????

 

[applebook]

i understand the notion of bulk purchases, and the effect that the pricepoint difference has, but this is still sadly underpowered. apple'd be much better off releasing a mac mini with a similar discount. schools can afford macs, but apple's overpriced displays? no way.

I'd take a Mini over this any day. At least the mini is cute, quiet and transportable.

 

[applebook]

Oh so what you're telling us you can't teach unless you have a mac?
Sounds like they need to hire another teacher.

I think that he's implying that students' education will suffer if they have only a Core i3 iMac with a simple, lousy display-port.