Re: Help! PC monopoly taking place
Re: Help! PC monopoly taking place
- Subject: Re: Help! PC monopoly taking place
- From: Dick Fowler <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 05 Feb 2003 23:37:25 -0700
- Organization: The Lasting Impression
Certainly all of the arguments supporting Macs in schools are valid;
unfortunately there are often several factors that cloud the
decision-making process.
1. So-called IT administrators in schools and universities are typically
trying to protect their little world; they know that Macs generally
require between 40 percent and 70 percent less support and are
relatively trouble-free and intuitive for the operators. If they don't
have to fix problems caused by MS operating systems, they don't have a job.
2. A level playing field in equipment selection is seldom the case.
Tilted criteria, long-held misconceptions about overall costs, the fairy
tale of 'no software available for the Mac' and a host of other
stumbling blocks stand in the way of even-handed decision making.
3. Apple has not completely abandoned the education market...it just
sometimes seems that way. My wife is an elementary school teacher and
just took advantage of the free Jaguar offer from Apple; mind you this
is for her personal Mac and will probably not find its way into her
classroom soon but it WILL help her manage her tasks as an educator and
help her prepare for teaching. It's a small 'bite of the Apple' but it's
a step in the correct direction.
I might add that we are sometimes our own worst enemy. Case in point:
Apple came out with the eMac machines and told us they were 'designed
for education' -- and many of us suddenly had to have this all-in-one
machine. Had we respected Apple's marketing direction perhaps the eMacs
would have made a difference. Once they became available for the 'rest
of us', they lost the aura of exclusivity for the education market. I
know this is a 'perception' thing and not truly a hardware decision but
I feel that had Apple held fast to the so-called 'education' machine,
that distinction may have helped change the way non-Mac people think
about our favorite platform.
4. There is a very fine line between creating a monopolistic atmosphere
and smart marketing tactics. Only a court of law could determine whether
the WinTel folks crossed that line in the language of their grants but I
seriously doubt that any of the MUG members have the resources or time
to pursue legal action. Wouldn't it be nice if Apple Legal was to follow
up on some of these purchasing agreements? Certainly one of their legal
eagles could tell in ten minutes if the contract was illegal -- can a
copy of the documents be obtained and forwarded to Apple?
5. Finally, the situation you describe sounds strangely like a similar
fiasco that took place on our Oregon coast a few years ago. In this
instance, a purchasing agent for a school district insisted on switching
everyone to new WinTel machines, although most of the schools were using
Macs and were quite happy with them. Further investigation by a
determined journalist for a little weekly newspaper discovered that not
only did the purchasing agent have a shiny new laptop for which he could
not produce a valid receipt, there was also a new desktop machine at his
home, also without sufficient documentation. It almost goes without
saying he lost his job. When all else fails, "follow the money!"
Sorry for the long post but obviously you've struck a nerve with me...
Dick Fowler
MUGPort (the Mac Users' Group for Oregon's central coast)
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