Within the next four years, the typical school in the United States may have more iPads than computers available to its students. That's according to the findings of a new survey that polled a slate of technology directors in just over two dozen U.S. school districts. At present, each of the districts is already testing the iPad in action within the educational infrastructure.
News of the report comes from prominent iDevice-watcher and market analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, who was quick to point out that none of the school districts contributing to the poll were similarly testing Android-powered tablets. As far as the schools in question are concerned, Apple is the only tablet maker that seems to matter.
"While this may be expected due to limited availability of Android tablets early in the tablet cycle, we also see it as evidence of Apple's first mover advantage," Munster writes. "We also see a trend in education (which is mirrored in the enterprise) that familiarity with Apple devices among students (or employees) is causing a demand pull within institutions to also provide Apple devices."
What would the era of the iPad in academia bring for school children across the U.S. (and, conceivably, around the world)? According to departing Apple retail chief and future JC Penney CEO, Ron Johnson, today's students may very well be the last generation of students with backpacks. Johnson, of course, is hinting that iPads may provide the gateway to digital learning materials like books, videos, and other content that will make today's methods and tools a thing of the past.
Source: Barron's
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