Apple nabs $30m iPad deal for 47 schools
Microsoft may have slashed Surface prices for students, but students at 47 schools in Los Angeles will be getting Apple's iPad instead.
The LA Unified School District board voted unanimously to lock in a $30m single-supplier contract with Apple to roll out iPads at 47 K-12 schools from this August.
The iPad rollout is the first phase of a project that could see the schools spend hundreds of millions of dollars with Apple over the next two years, according to the LA Times.
The schools have allocated $50m to the first phase of the rollout which includes the devices, storage cards, charging stations, infrastructure, monitoring and mobile device management systems.
The district will pay $678 per device, which is more than what the devices cost in stores, but it will also include iWork and iLife. Apple will also provide a new app that includes the Pearson Common Core System of Courses.
Although it's a massive contract for Apple, the 47 schools represent a fraction of the 900 in the LA Unified Schools District (LAUSD) at which 640,000 students are enrolled. It is the second largest school district in the US.
According to Jaime Aquino, LAUSD Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, the plan is to equip every one of its students with a device by 2014.
"When completed, the LAUSD will become the largest district in the nation to provide each of its students with the technology," said Aquino.
The district's staff will present an assessment of the first phase later this year before requesting full funding of the remaining phases.
Not surprisingly, a Microsoft representative urged the board to avoid relying on one platform since that could prevent the schools from accessing future price reductions and innovations, the LA Times reported.