With Apple re-emphasizing its push for the education market with its new iPad and software updates, it’s worth examining how the company stacks up with Google and Microsoft. Here’s a look at the core pitches as well as the moving parts.
The education market is a little more interesting, as Apple has stepped up its software and app game to manage the student and teacher experience, and it launched a new $299 iPad for schools with Apple Pencil support. (See more on what was announced at Apple’s event from here.)
The big question is whether Apple is too late to close in on Google’s lead in the education market that is pushing 60 percent market share.
Simply put, the stakes are high. Frost & Sullivan said the educational market generated $17.7 billion in revenue for technology vendors. Of that sum, Google, Microsoft, and Apple accounted for nearly 83 percent of the revenue pie. Frost & Sullivan, however, noted the market is shifting, and the battleground is moving toward augmented reality and virtual reality content and tools, AI and robotics, and analytics.