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Debatable. I would argue that writing across the curriculum is a critical learning outcome even before grade 7, but your point is reasonable and I will concede it for the point of discussion.



They are losing on both issues. Yes, cost is cost. But iPads lack multiuser support for education. That's a huge issue! With Windows or Chrome OS I can set up the laptops so that 6,000 students can take one out of a cart and log in with their school credentials (LDAP or Active Directory). And then, boom (as Jobs would have said), they have access to their desktop, files, apps, and whatnot else.

With the iPads, they all have to be set up identical for all students with no personalization or file persistence. That's because Apple's multiuser model is unimplementably ridiculous! It presupposes setting up separate accounts for each classroom and the students within it. That's unrealistic, unless you're going to a rich, small, private school. And even there the organizational overhead of doing that every semester for every instructor/classroom might make it not worth it.



They only have a strong foothold with students purchasing their individual machines. And even there the top model that students choose is the MacBook Air, which is comically out of date. Neither the MacBook nor the MacBook Pro are sensible specs for ordinary college students.

On the institutional side, which is the side that matters in education, Apple is loosing badly. 20 years ago you would walk through a university computer lab, and half of the machines in there would Apple computers. Today, it's a couple of iMacs in the corner for niche uses. iBooks and PowerBooks were good choices for laptop carts, because of their robust feature set and reliability. For example, their adoption of 802.11 was so much more reliable when that was new. Network printing too!

The worst compromise with buying Apple were the external floppy drives because they dropped support a little early. But that's an understandable compromise you could live with. We were trying to get students to quit floppys in the late 90s in favor of network storage anyway.

Apple has obviously lost the plot in education. They act like they don't care anymore. Like they have given up. Google is seeing that opening and exploiting the hell out of it. Whoever wins in education, wins an entire generation of userbase. Microsoft still understands that.
I can't counter your well made arguments but I would disagree that Apple has given up. They wouldn't have just made a huge media play for education and they wouldn't have bothered if they really had no intention to stay in education. They've already locked in a few school systems (probably) from that event alone. That brings me to my next point. Apple has and will always only aim for the upper 10% of each market. They have no problem losing out to Google or Microsoft for the other 90% of schools. They are only aiming for public and private schools and universities that support their vision of high end, homogeneous hardware and workflows for each student because those are the only schools that have those budgets. Those are the only schools that can even seriously consider Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft comparisons.

I do not think this approach is beneficial to them because it does not contribute nearly as much to their bottom line as do the consumer and enterprise sales. And by relinquishing the majority of educational marketshare to competition, they absolutely risk losing future mindshare and business for all of those students as you say.
 
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The iPad mini was a great product but like all the best of Apple products they have been discontinued.

And when exactly was that announced?

Unfortunately Apple's focus seems to have shifted more towards the top end of the market.

It is highly unlikely Apple would have released a product such as the iMac Pro back in 2012 as in that time the Mac range was far more balanced of which I am certain Steve Jobs can be credited with.

In 2012 we had the last decent Mac mini release, superior 13" and 15" Retina MacBook Pros, 11" and 13" MacBook Airs not to mention the Unibody 13" and 15" non Retina MacBook Pros which were awesome for upgrading and we had only just lost the legendary 17" MacBook Pro.

While I don't disagree Apple is focused on the top end of the market where the most profit is, there are plenty of examples where this is not the case. The SE, the Apple Watch Series 1, the MacBook Air, The iPod Touch ... and now there's an active rumor of a Mac mini Pro. Granted that skews to the upper end of the lineup, but it's also likely to still be cheaper than an entry level iMac.
 
It's amusing how few people know that a $15 12W OEM iPad charger will charge even iPhones 7 and below just as fast as those fancy USB-C chargers can charge iPhone 8 and above.
 
It's tablets like these that killed the iPad mini, along with the popularity of phablets.

No one is willing to pay $399 for $299 for an iPad mini as an e-reader when FireHD does the job for a fraction the price.

How are they doing it so much cheaper?

I would actually pay $400 for an iPhone X like iPad mini, but I'm an apple fanatic.

The Fire HD 8 is eventually going to be mounted on the wall as a home automation tablet running Action Tiles. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on something that would just be mounted to the wall. Until that project is done I'll use it for some light reading and web browsing from time to time but I would much rather have a full iPad.
 
The only way a Macbook Air makes sense anymore is if Apple brings back the 11” Macbook Air. Otherwise it’s just silly to call the 13” an Air when the 12” Macbook is smaller, thinner and lighter.
I really hope they 'bring back' the 11" MBA but it will really be 12" because of the thinner bezels and now even lighter.
So they can discontinue the MacBook. That has become some in mid between only one size laptop.
As they also release a 13" MBA in reality 14" with thinner bezels, too.
Then keep the MBP of course. This is what I want to see.

I’ll buy a MBA 11/12" immediately :)
Then I have thought about what I’m gonna do with my iPad Air2 that the battery isn’t that good anymore.
I’ll keep it maybe a bit, then I buy the new iPad Mini (Pro) because I need a bit bigger iOS device for some use then my little SE. that I might upgrade to the new 2018 SE with thinner bezels later too.

So Apple, if you play your cards right, this is how you will gain access to my money this year :p
I won’t buy a bigger laptop then the size of the old MBA 11" not a chance.
I won’t buy a bigger phone then iPhone SE, not a chance. But definitely one with thinner bezels.
And then as a bonus I will buy the new iPad Mini too.
So be smart Apple :D
 
Apple is late in merging 12" macbook with Macbook Air line up, they maybe are sizing the market with this 2 products, but if so, they are going to take just wrong stadistics, as both offer SOOOOO diffrent specs.

Doesn't sound like they intend to merge them at this point. Different products for different customer types, each offering different criteria to serve distinct user needs.
 
Doesn't sound like they intend to merge them at this point. Different products for different customer types, each offering different criteria to serve distinct user needs.

They’re very different!

MacBook Air:
images


MacBook:

images


So different.
 
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Doesn't sound like they intend to merge them at this point. Different products for different customer types, each offering different criteria to serve distinct user needs.
They kept the name as Air is the most popular apple portable and they couldnt present the macbook 12 as a macbook air because the price back then. So now they have this “dilema” about names. but obviously macbook 12 and 2018 air are what air11 and air13 were in the past, as their specs in paper are similar, even better for the Air 2018, at lower price!
https://www.apple.com/es/mac/compare/results/?product1=macbook&product2=macbook-air-retina-13

Indeed, macbook 12 is a rare product which in Jobs era would have dead date aleady writen. In Spain is the less popular Apple product, as at this point I’ve never know anyone with one, and now, has just become the new Air11 but at higher price than the air 13, and just a few physical points lighter/smaller. People ends hating 10”, 11”, even 12” as it is a really small size to work, and for that size and for ocasional work, you can do better with the iPad (macbook 12 came a year when iPads couldnt do as many things as they can now and even needed a laptop in order to do things as backups or itunes sync, but not anymore so having both products now is redundant unless you pretend edit your raws in Photoshop in the macbook 12 even then, i recomend you the cheaper, much more powerfull iPad pro and lightroom)

Sorry, mb12 is not more expensive than mba13 as in spain they are 1500 and 1599 with 256gb respectively, so they reproduce the mba11 and mba13 as in the past!!

So yes, they want to merge names but marketing wouldnt allow to
 
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But photos are photos. They don't convey the physical difference between the products. The MacBook is very small when seen in person.

Besides, it's Apple point of view, too - listen to what their Senior Director of Mac Product Marketing has to say in this podcast: https://www.imore.com/vector-mac-apple-tom-boger


again, is just marketing department who wont allow merge bith products as other departments already treat them as same family, even prive match what air11 and air13 were in past:
[Priced only $100 more than the base model 11-inch MacBook Air at $999, the 13-inch MacBook Air]
https://m.imore.com/macbook-air-11-inch-vs-13-inch-which-ultralight-laptop-should-you-get

Even size and specs between mb12 and air13 match what air11 air 13 were
https://newatlas.com/new-macbook-vs-macbook-air-2015/36769/
 
again, is just marketing department who wont allow merge bith products as other departments already treat them as same family, even prive match what air11 and air13 were in past:
[Priced only $100 more than the base model 11-inch MacBook Air at $999, the 13-inch MacBook Air]
https://m.imore.com/macbook-air-11-inch-vs-13-inch-which-ultralight-laptop-should-you-get

Even size and specs between mb12 and air13 match what air11 air 13 were
https://newatlas.com/new-macbook-vs-macbook-air-2015/36769/
There’s a difference between 2 lbs. and 2.75 lbs. The Air is basically in the same weight class as the MacBook Pro (3 lbs). Both are significantly heavier than MacBook.

Apple sees a separate, distinct market segment for MacBook ultraportables, and they know people will pay a premium. It’s $1,549 for an i7 MacBook—for a 1.4GHz CPU. To those who value size and weight, they’ll gladly pay extra, even though it has a smaller screen than the Air.

Personally, I’d like to see Apple expand the ultraportable MacBook lineup with a 14” MacBook, at as close to 2.5 lbs. as they can get. Not sure if there’s a big enough market for it, but I’d buy one lol.
 
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Seriously, do the math, in numbers, old air11 is to old air13 what mb12 is to air13 2018

Just google for a percentage calculator and put the numbers of 4 products
 

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