Help Me Understand This

Posted by on Feb 18, 2012
Help Me Understand This

I’m frustrated.

For many years the MacBook has been a workhorse for students and staff in many school districts. In January of 2011, the MacBook was still Apple’s second-best selling laptop. Then, over the summer, they discontinued the model for consumers. That was very concerning.

However, they still offered the model for education. I met with our Apple reps in December to begin discussing the refresh of our teacher laptops, all of which are MacBooks. I expressed my concern about the MacBook going away, and they assured me that there was no indication that was going to take place. If it did, they promised, there would still be plenty of stock remaining once an announcement was made to purchase the units we needed for our refresh.

This past week, I received the email I knew was coming. The MacBook was dead. As our reps promised, there was an end of life inventory left, but those units were going to go quickly, so anybody who wanted/needed any had to act immediately. Which, for anyone trying to work outside of a budget purchase cycle, is impossible. I asked if they could reserve the necessary units for our purchase, and they said they could not do that. They needed a PO immediately, which we simply weren’t in a position to do. As I was frantically trying to work out the means for us to make the purchase, I got a second email. All of the end of life stock was gone.

So too might be their focus on education.

Here’s where things get infuriating. The new solution for schools is an “education-priced” MacBook Air. For $999 when purchased in bulk.

The MacBook Air comes with a 64 GB hard drive (welcome to 2001), 2 GB of RAM (non-upgradeable), 1.6 GHz processor, no ethernet port (to connect to ethernet costs an additional $29 for a USB dongle), and no optical drive. All of these are significant steps down from the MacBook specs. And, we could get the MacBooks in bulk for $849.

So, we get to pay $150 more per unit for a whole lot less. Awesome.

The MacBook Air is an excellent computer for road warriors. Which, our teachers are not. We are now expected to pay a premium for the portability of a device that we don’t need to be ultraportable. Our reality is that we need much more than 64 GB given all of the multimedia work our staff has now started engaging in. We also need an optical drive as our staff use theirs literally every day. We need the ethernet port as that helps us balance the load on our wireless given that we are 1:1 in grades 5-8 and are looking to add grades 3+4 next year.

When I expressed this to our Apple rep, he explained that while he understood, the position of Apple has recently been to encourage schools who don’t favor the Air to look at the MacBook Pro. Awesome, again. So, we now have to spend $250 more per unit. Yes, those units would have the functionality we need, but we’re not in a position to spend $1,100 per device for all our staff members. That would be $62,500 more for the purchase. That’s significant.

What are you doing, Apple? Because by all rights, it looks like you’ve worked very hard to force us away from using you in our institution.

24 Comments

  1. Tim holt
    February 18, 2012

    You need to look at the effect of the Indonesian flooding on the cost of the laptop. The laptop you were talking abou tis the only one that uses a traditional hard drive. The supply is still constrained. I am sure apple is using the opportunity to move to all ssd drives.

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      February 25, 2012

      I like the idea of an ssd drive, it’s just that 64 GB isn’t nearly enough in our environment. And going larger is still pretty cost prohibitive. I’m sure it will come down in price like all things technology, unfortunately not quick enough for our refresh this summer.

      Reply
  2. Tom
    February 18, 2012

    We’ll be in a similar situation soon.

    I’m going to run some reports to figure out how much of our HDs are currently being used. I want to see if there’s some way to gather similar data about processor cycles and RAM allocation. I’m not sure we can get that.

    My belief is that we over-provide for most teachers. I’m curious to see if that’s true. I always wanted to harvest all those idle processor cycles . . .

    I don’t think that helps you with your problem but assuming you’ve got the infrastructure to do it, that kind of data might be worth considering.

    I think I’d be alright with paying the same amount, even for seemingly lower specs. I’m assuming a solid state drive balances out some RAM, lowers repair rates, better battery life etc.

    I’m not thrilled but I’m not despondent either.

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      February 25, 2012

      I’m not necessarily despondent, I’m more frustrated with the way Apple continues to shift focus to the consumer side of their business. The days of their clear educational support are apparently over.

      I agree that in some cases, there might be more machine than is utilized. However, in many cases in our district, we simply need the items I detailed above.

      I’m not yet ready to say paying more for less is the right thing to do. If the MB Air was $800, then there might be a better conversation to be had. That a MB Air is so significantly less featured for more money is unbelievable. And people rationalizing and supporting that position absurd.

      Reply
  3. Antoine RJ Wright
    February 18, 2012

    Let me preface this with saying its been a bit more than half a decade since teaching in a facility below the college level. Computing for me then was PDAs, and even then was way ahead of the discussions on mobile and computing in education practices.

    I don’t see that Apple is going away from the education field at all. They have been framing the iPad as central to a next-paradigm of computing for the education set, as well as most other general computing. Yes, shifting like this for them would be painful. The standard for ease of use, administration, and even creativity was an Apple device and a keyboard. However, they have moved their own paradigm from keyboard-needed (for all computing) to keyboarding needing to bring something to the table that improves the experience of computing beyond “just another input mechanism.” This shift isn’t friendly to educators who are themselves slower to change such a core behavior, especially when the software and policies also fit this.

    I don’t think that Apple is going away. I do think they are asking the,selves, and educational facilitators, if the MacBook was conductive to the best practice for how Apple sees education. Not that the way you see it is wrong, but their vision guides their products. Your vision guides your behaviors. Big difference.

    I wonder. And this is just a wonder. Are those same reps who give you product also helping you to revitalize your educational tools, behaviors, and experiences around Apple’s vision for computing? Or, are they just pushing a product? If the former, you should expect more encouragement to see thing like iBook Author, and various other apps and services pushed more towards your solution; making the device less important, and later not at all important to your goals (preparing kids for the world in which they will graduate). If the latter, maybe it’s the education industry which needs to move away from itself to something more fulfilling the goals of what education actually sells.

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      February 25, 2012

      I really appreciate the thoughts and comment, Antoine. I’m going to reply candidly, so I hope you understand I’m not trying to be glib or antagonistic about any of this.

      Frankly, I don’t believe the iPad is the next-paradigm of computing for education. While I do think tablets are offering an intriguing option and possible glimpse of what could be ahead for education, I don’t believe Apple’s model of a tablet is the solution. At all. From the VPP model to the locked down, inhibitive way the device dictates the experience for the user, it’s still primarily a consumer-centric, consumption based device. Yes, I know there are ways to create with it. But there are still far too many obstacles and user gyrations one must go through in order to free up that which is being made on the device.

      As to the question about Apple reps helping me revitalize my educational tools, behaviors, and experiences around Apple’s vision for computing, uh, no thanks. I will not have a commercial company who is determined to continue propagating sales of their devices influence the direction I believe learning should go. Apple is a company selling a product. We are the experts creating the vision for learning. If that isn’t the case, something is terribly wrong with education.

      I also don’t believe iBooks, iBook Author, or any other means of digitizing old pedagogy is a part of our solution.

      Reply
      • Gary Stager
        June 19, 2012

        Ben,

        I agree with you. Apple is 100% focused on iPads in education and will abandon 1:1 computing, if they haven’t already done so. This breaks my heart, not because the iPad is a terrible piece of hardware, but because the arrogant marketing folks will not allow the iPad to be programmed or create executable files that may be used by another application. This is the first time in their history that they have told users what they may not do with a computer that would otherwise be capable of accomplishing the user’s goal.

        I began working in 1:1 schools in 1990. I then helped Apple launch 1:1 computing in that country (Australia) with Governor King and Seymour Papert in 2004. They were 14-15 years late to the party and now I fear that I may be recommending PCs to my school clients.

        As an Apple stockholder, loyal user and person who has influenced a couple hundred millions worth of Apple purchases over the past 30 years, that would make me sad.

        PS: I began writing a very long detailed article stating my displeasure with the iBooks, iBooks Author and future of education being textbooks vision from the day it was announced. Perhaps I will finish it one day. They just don’t get it.

        Steve Jobs’ greatest contribution to education was that he didn’t give a rat’s ass about it. As a result, schools bought computers or they didn’t. He didn’t pander to them or tell them how to use them.

        Reply
        • Ben Grey
          August 9, 2012

          Gary,

          Somehow I missed this comment. Not sure how. Well, probably do. Likely from a very poor treatment of neglect for my blog on my part lately. My apologies.

          You’ve touched on something that I’m coming to realize is my biggest issue with the entire iPad conversation. You and Scott were discussing it a bit the other day, and it has to do with the inability to actually own the device. Apple does. And in a very real sense, they own your use. And perhaps even to some regard the user himself. That’s so very troublesome. Give me a little time to ruminate some more, and I’ll articulate my thoughts in an upcoming post. Very likely to be similar to what you’ve been saying for a while about the power of computing being the capacity to amplify human potential. The article about Russell Kirsch certainly nailed much of it as well.

          “Create things that have never before existed and do things that have never been done before.” That’s just awesome.

          Reply
  4. Joshua Williams
    February 18, 2012

    Ben,

    I have been frustrated by this as well. While I understand Apple might envision a shift toward iPads as a replacement for laptops as student devices, it does feel like that is being forced upon us with the removal of the MacBook, which has been the affordable “sweet spot” in schools for some time now. The 13″ MacBook Pro is a great laptop, to be certain. But you are spot-on in pointing out the $250 price delta as an obstacle for schools–many of whom are working with SMALLER budgets than they were 3-4 years ago. It leaves you in the unenviable position of having to explain why you shouldn’t purchase almost twice as many Windows laptops for the same amount of money. Apple has proven me wrong before. I hope, for many increasingly urgent reasons, it does so again. Soon.

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      February 25, 2012

      I’ve long understood Apple’s position to not be, in any way, part of the budget computing market. I get that. However, I don’t get the move to make an ultraportable device your base-level computer for people who can’t use the iPad as a primary machine. I understand Apple setting the price at $999 as the device has a cost associated with making it so portable. To force education, an industry not composed of road warriors, to pay the premium for the portability is absurd.

      And even more absurd is people trying to argue that paying more for less is clearly the right decision to make.

      Your point about providing rationale for not moving away from Apple is becoming more and more difficult to make. For example, I could go get an HP dm4 with a 2.4 GHz i5, 640 GB HD, 8 GB RAM, optical drive, all the ports, aluminum body, backlit keyboard, user replaceable batter that lasts 8 hours, and very thin overall profile, for $679. That’s much, much more than what the MB Air is offering. And now, I know I’ve incited the Apple vs. pc debate to unfold in full.

      Reply
  5. JB
    February 19, 2012

    The Edge of Yesterday?
    I don’t see those as issues with Apple; technology changes.
    Most of our teachers don’t use optical drives at all anymore. Same reason floppy drives left laptops, then desktops. Everything is going to streaming/cloud storage, so who needs HD space on their device anymore? Most of their data should be stored on the network so it can be backed up, shared and accessible anywhere/any device.
    Giving teachers a laptop and telling them they need to plug into the ethernet ports, defeats the purpose of giving them a laptop in the first place. They should be able to teach from anywhere, not tethered.
    Apple has always been pushing forward with technology and this decision is no different. Going away? No, leaving you behind. The MBA is one of their fastest growing devices, by molding it into their education device is smart. Rumors have the 13″ MBP going toward a more MBA form factor as well, without an optical drive.

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      February 25, 2012

      The Edge of Yesterday. That’s actually pretty funny. Thanks for the laugh, JB.

      A few responses.

      We’re simply not quite ready for the optical drive to go away in our district. It’s a bit different than the floppy at this point. We still have a great deal of media in that format, and our staff still burn disks for our students on a regular basis. Our community is one that still does consume quite a bit from a disk, so we aren’t ready to dictate they move forward and transcode all their stuff quite yet.

      “Everything is going to streaming/cloud storage, so who needs HD space on their device anymore?” Well, we do. You said “going”, which is true. It’s on it’s way there, but not there yet. If this decision were being made three years from now, we would likely have the ability to push that transition. It’s not. It’s now. Too much of our stuff is still outside of the cloud for that to be a solution. We simply need the HD space.

      Our teachers love to teach from anywhere. And when possible, they do. However, the majority of the work they do takes place in their classroom. And when they are there, they are in reach of an ethernet jack. Having them use that seriously helps the strain on our wireless network that having 1200 wireless devices presents. Of course they all have wireless cards in their laptops, and will continue to do so to move where they need to move when teaching. We just ask, however, that when they are in their room, they use the ethernet jack to help relieve the wireless a bit if their device will be at their desk. Which it is often.

      The MacBook Air is one of the fastest growing devices only because the MacBook was discontinued. Go research that. When Apple discontinued the MacBook, it was their second best selling device behind only the MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air only composed 28% of their notebook sales. When they discontinued the MacBook for consumers, that’s when the MacBook Air sales began their significant growth.

      The fact you would honestly advocate for a machine that has less, and the whole notion of the more not being relevant because you don’t use it is simple tautology, is very telling. And unfortunate. Because we are the ones called to practice fiscal responsibility with public funds and to provide our students and staff with the best possible learning solution. The MacBook Air, at this point, is neither.

      Reply
      • Gary Stager
        June 19, 2012

        The cloud is BS (at this point in time at least) and an expensive folly for schools managing to make The Google work for kids.

        I don’t trust the cloud and would prefer to spend them money wasted on employing network technicians on student laptops.

        Reply
  6. Dan Stucke
    February 19, 2012

    I can see this as frustrating but like others I think you’d be surprised how easily you’d manage with a MBA or should maybe consider the iPad in more detail.

    The MBA is a deceptively powerful machine, even in its lowest spec. 64Gb may be an issue but server storage / USB drives / cloud storage should offer flexible solutions.

    What do they use on DVD? Haven’t used a disc for years!!

    Wireless should surely be a priority, tethering a laptop does seem daft. We’re investigating a solution called Ubiquity Unifi, which at first seems to good to be true on price, but initial tests are very promising.

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      February 25, 2012

      There is no way an iPad would function as a full time device for a teacher. Absolutely no way. For far too many reasons to cite here.

      As I mentioned above to JB, we still need all of the items I listed above. Again, perhaps in three years we will be at a point where we can transition to a stripped down device like a MB Air, but it simply wouldn’t work for now.

      And, stop and think about what you are advocating for. I have a 13″ MB Air with a 256 GB ssd. It’s nice. But it’s not the right option for our current situation. That people could honestly advocate to pay more for a device that is less featured is rather unbelievable. And, I’m afraid, betrays a sense of Apple fanaticism that is alarming.

      Reply
  7. Tom
    February 19, 2012

    Wow. A tad over passionate on some of those replies…

    Bottom line is- more money and less stats, even on paper, put people arguing for Macs in a hard place.

    Reply
  8. Brady
    February 22, 2012

    Frustrating indeed, but don’t these types of changes happen all of the time across every industry? Products and price-points change. I think Apple is such a loved brand that people feel personally betrayed when they make business decisions (e.g. no more matte displays, FCP X, killing Newton, etc.)

    Budgets aside for a second, I’d love to trade my Macbook in for an Air. A few reasons why:

    – I personally haven’t used an optical drive in several years. (Ben – what do your teachers use them for?)
    – Goodbye plastic case (Ben – Don’t yours break/crack?)
    – SSD will improve running speeds of many activities much more than a faster CPU (Ben – How much do you spend replacing drives each year?)
    – Battery life should be a bit better and it’s actually cool enough to put on my lap without getting burned
    – New technologies such as Thunderbolt which makes it easy to use in heavier-duty multimedia environments (no iMacs required?).

    You’ve already mentioned the downsides. HD capacity would be my only worry, but it actually forces students/teachers to publish on the web and delete – not a bad practice in a school setting. (e.g. I’ve been shooting and editing video on a 16GB iPad for many weeks without a worry.)

    Ben – you’ve advocated strongly for 1:1 netbooks + macbook carts. Does this development change that recipe? How about abandoning the carts and putting the extra money toward higher-spec netbooks? Or?

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      February 25, 2012

      Yes, people love their Apples. Interesting that in your examples, save the Newton, Apple has backtracked. They went back and offered the option of a matte screen (which you have to pay more for, of course), they went back to offer FCP 7 again.

      If you didn’t need the portability, you would really trade in a device that is more featured and powered for one that has less but costs more? That’s curious.

      As noted above, we still do use our optical drives quite a bit.

      The plastic is surprisingly resilient. I checked our damage reports after this question, and we’ve never cracked the body of a MacBook over that time period.

      We’ve only replaced 9 drives over the past five years.

      Battery life of any current 6 cell battery is very close, if not the same, as the MacBook Air. And, they are user replaceable. The MacBook Air is not.

      There are yet to be any relevant Thunderbolt devices. Not saying there won’t be, but I can’t see it in the near future in a way that would make a difference for our teachers. Especially during this purchase cycle.

      As I said above, the idea that people think we should pay more for a device that gives us less is rather confounding. I guess I expected there to be some people defending Apple, but the logic is rather troubling. If the MacBook Air was priced at $800, it would be a bit more understandable. That people advocate we pay a premium for an ultraportable device when we don’t need that level of portability is odd.

      Running the numbers, using the MacBook carts in combination with the netbooks is still the most viable approach for us. Even if we were to reallocate the $27,000 per MacBook cart and average it out with our netbooks, we’d still be looking at $397.50 per device to spend.

      I guess the more compelling option might be to use a higher powered Linux device for the carts to check out. A model like the HP dm4 that has 8 GB RAM, 2.4 GHz i5 processor, 640 GB HD, aluminum body, backlit keyboard, and more as mentioned above, and we can get those for $679 each.

      I guess I just don’t get how people can say that we should be paying more for the MacBook Air, and given its current specifications, that paying $999 makes it the best choice for a staff device.

      Reply
  9. Ben Grey
    February 25, 2012

    After reading the comments thus far, I’ve a bit more to add to this post.

    I think the MacBook Air is a very nice device for people who need the ultraportable form factor.

    I don’t think teachers need an ultraportable form factor.

    Many people have said that we should be looking to move data and tasks off of the device and to the cloud. While I agree that will continue to happen moving forward, we’re just not there yet.

    But if we were, then I agree that we could use a less powered device. But do we then need to pay $999 for that lower powered device? As I mentioned in a few replies above, wouldn’t a device like the HP dm4 work nicely? It has a 14″ screen, 8 GB of RAM, 2.4 GHz i5 processor, 6 cell battery that lasts 7 hours, a full array of ports, and only costs $679. Seems to me if everyone is advocating we move everything to the cloud, then we’d just need a device that provides access to the cloud. A device like the dm4 could also easily handle any multimedia tasks one might choose to do with it.

    The idea that we should pay more for less just doesn’t make sense. And, the level of Apple fanaticism is alarming. I own and enjoy a number of Apple devices. I’m not anti-Apple.

    I am, however, anti any company trying to tell us that it’s good for education to pay a premium for a portability profile that isn’t necessary for our staff and that we should pay more for less because they told us it’s better to do so.

    Seriously, why can’t Apple just offer a full functioning computer at the $750 price point?

    Reply
  10. JB
    February 25, 2012

    Thanks for the reply, sorry if I was a jerk.

    Apple often goes their own way, which I used to really despise, but understand now. Sometimes we all need a push to move forward and that’s what Apple does. If we always waited for it to be “there”, then we would never get there. Which is sort of why I came of like I did, it sounded like you were frustrated with Apple being Apple. The Macbook was a bridge to a market the other devices were not designed for. I can still see Apple reinventing that product at a later date (they’re always reinventing something). The optical drive I’m afraid is not long for the mobile world. You’ve got to have a better way of getting stuff to your students. They’re using so many different devices today that do not have an optical drive and will not in the future. The data should be available to them whenever they need it.

    The device should follow your needs and needs shouldn’t follow the device. Which is where you’re at, with needing an optical drive and large hard drive, because it’s still needed in your environment. Every year we reevaluate each device to see how it stacks up to other devices based on our needs. We find the one best suited for the application. Is it a PC, Apple, Tablet, Chromebook or Netbook? We try not to attach ourselves to brand/device. So it doesn’t decide our needs/limitations. This situation is an indication that you should consider the cloud, where the device doesn’t matter. We’ve moved to Stoneware so we don’t get caught up in being stuck with a certain device. Who knows, there might be another device that serves your needs better and saves you money? I recommend weeding them off from the optical drive.

    Also on a side note about your wireless. This may sound weird, but it’s refreshing to hear about a hurdle with having so many wireless devices. We try to provide an environment where you can teach and learn from anywhere, but sometimes it’s daunting with the number of devices on the network. Reading all these blogs, people tend to skip over the things that don’t work if they don’t have the solution. Which I always get frustrated with when trying to find information on the issues I’m looking to work on. What brand solution do you use for wireless?

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      March 6, 2012

      No worries, JB. Everyone works very hard at what they do, and they usually reach a pretty passionate position on these issues. It’s these conversations that hopefully help us all work through our ideas and positions on the issues.

      We are using a Ruckus wireless system at our middle school. Turns out it’s half the cost of Cisco and performs better in our environment. I’d highly recommend them for anyone looking.

      We have a Cisco system at our elementary buildings that was installed about four years ago. It’s performing relatively well, but I really do wish now that it was also Ruckus.

      Reply
  11. JB
    February 25, 2012

    You should look at refurbished Dell’s with 3 year warranties.

    Reply
  12. Brady
    February 26, 2012

    Great comments. Ben, thanks for actually looking into my questions – it is great to get some solid data on these things rather than wild assumptions (like the ones I was making).

    I’ll point out that I’ve got the luxury of not caring about price-points as much as you do. Sure prices matter, but over 90% of our students have an iOS device of their own at home and the parents are dropping over 20k/year on tuition, so for us it is a question of providing the best solutions, staying relevant and being persuasive about the value we are providing. I believe that at this point in time, I can do all three of those things more effectively with Apple products than I can with our current Win7 machines.

    That hasn’t always been the case, and it may change in the future. As noted, Apple’s model of having a very small, focused product line means that it’s increasingly focused on the trendy consumer their interests will not always align with education. (I forgot to mention x-serve – One of Apple’s biggest recent betrayals strategic decisions that hurt their relationship with education. So yes, Apple needs to think more strategically about its relationship with education. (No the new textbooks thing is not cutting it.)

    I now work on a PC all day, and I am always thrilled to get home to my iMac. If the kids feel that way too, then how do we calculate the value of that when making our purchasing decisions? It probably isn’t worth $300/machine but it’s worth something.

    Reply
    • Ben Grey
      March 6, 2012

      Thanks, Brady.

      I agree with the sentiments about Windows 7 as that’s the reason we went with Linux on our netbooks instead of Windows. I am, however, intrigued with some of the stuff I’m hearing about Windows 8. We’ll see.

      I still like the Apple devices that I have, I’m just growing very concerned about their obvious direction and focus on the trendy consumer as it seems to continue to move them away from their once strong focus on education.

      Reply

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