An Apple For Teachers

The Cupertino-based computer maker on Thursday began offering free copies of Unix-based OS X 10.2 to all K-12 teachers in the United States. Dubbed "X for Teachers," the program covers K-12 teachers only and excludes higher-education end users and resellers. The offer ends Dec. 31 and is limited to one Jaguar copy per qualifying teacher, each of whom also receives a "Getting Started with Mac OS X" training CD.

Apple said teachers will be able to take advantage of OS X 10.2's multimedia applications, such as iMovie (digital video), iPhoto (digital photos) and iTunes (digital audio). Other key Jaguar apps for schools include the Sherlock 3 Web search/services tool, which includes access to dictionary, thesaurus and language-translation sites; the Address Book, which can act as a central database for student, parent and colleague contacts; a new Mail application, which has filters to identify junk e-mail and messages containing inappropriate material; and Universal Access, which enables teachers to magnify the computer screen and have highlighted text read aloud.

About 4,000 OS X-native applications are now available, including hundreds of education-specific applications, according to Apple. Educators also can run existing Mac OS 9 software on Jaguar through the new platform's Classic mode.

"Getting Jaguar and a training CD for free makes it easy for teachers to move to Mac OS X, so they can spend more time using technology in the classroom and less time making it all work," said John Couch, Apple's vice president of education, in a statement. "Apple has delivered innovative products to teachers and schools for over 25 years, and Mac OS X is our best ever."

By giving educators free copies of OS X, Apple stands to boost its platform's presence in its core education space, where the company has lost market share to Dell Computer, industry observers say.

In its latest PC Tracker report on the education market, research firm IDC said Dell shipped more than double the number of computers to schools (535,982) than Apple shipped (233,034) in the second quarter of 2002. That gave Dell a 34.9 percent market share vs. 15.1 percent for Apple in the quarter, up from 31.2 percent for Dell and 19.3 percent for Apple a year earlier, IDC reported. During that time, Dell was the only vendor of the top five PC sellers in the education space to gain market share, while the others--Apple, HP-Compaq, Gateway and IBM--all lost share, according to IDC figures.

This year, Apple bolstered its product menu for educators. For example, the company unveiled PowerSchool SIS V3.0, an upgrade of its Web-based student information system; the eMac, an all-in-one desktop designed for schools (later made available to consumers); and Xserve, a 1U rack-mount server that runs Unix-based Mac OS X Server software, which comes with unlimited user licenses and can support Windows clients. Apple also updated its iBook notebook by adding options for a faster processor and a bigger screen. The iBook, used in tandem with Apple's AirPort wireless networking system, has been popular in the education space, observers say.

Over the next five years, U.S. public school districts are expected to hike their IT-related spending, with computer hardware eventually accounting for more than a quarter of their technology budgets, according to IDC. The K-12 market segment is shifting its buying focus from desktops to laptops and smart handhelds, a transition that's projected to accelerate at the start of the 2003-04 school year, IDC reported.