Dive Brief:

• A study by the new nonprofit organization, Technology for Education Consortium (TEC), found that iPad prices for schools ranged from a low of $367 to a high of $499 per device.
• The price differential does not correlate to district size, but does seem to relate to how aggressively districts negotiated with Apple sales reps over iPad Air tablet sales.
• Former New York City Public Schools Chancellor Harold Levy called the ed-tech procurement process "broken," and called for more transparency in pricing and services and more teacher input in purchasing decisions. 

Dive Insight:

Although Apple is looking to move in on the K-12 market, moves like this one certainly won't help districts' and school officials' loyalty to the company. Apple CEO Tim Cook has publicly stated that "iPads are set apart from the competition by their education-focused native apps and integration with school curriculum," insinuating disadvantages exist to using Google Chromebooks, since they require constant web connections to access the suite of tools known as Google Apps for Educators (GAFE).

Yet the company has a lot of territory to regain. In 2012, Chromebooks accounted for just 1% of tech device purchases for educational use. iPads started out as an ed-tech darling; but their popularity has faded, and the proliferation of Chromebooks has been meteoric. Today, Chromebooks account for over 51% of market share.

Other notable Apple setbacks include a botched $1-billion device rollout in Los Angeles that was supposed to give every student an iPad. That failed initiative is now being investigated by the FBI.

At the end of January, Apple announced that it had acquired the ed tech startup LearnSprout for an undisclosed amount. LearnSprout reportedly makes software to assist student performance analytics and tracking. Earlier that month, the company announced an iOS 9.3 update containing a variety of new features to make iPads easier to use in the classroom, like multi-user support so that individual profiles for multiple students can exist on a single device.