It seems hard to imagine that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) might have lost much share in any market it has dominated, but Apple is introducing a lower-cost iPad targeted at the education market. What is interesting here is that the education market used to be more inclined to Apple and Mac products. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) changed that with its much cheaper tablets and Chromebook laptops running on Android.
Perhaps the real question that needs to be asked is whether Apple can win the market back. It might seem like Apple would be willing to sell the cheaper iPad entrance as a loss leader in the form of advertising for future clients. After all, those technology users as kids will ultimately pay for products and services when they get older and are buying their own things.
This news has been known for a few days, but now that it is official, the new 9.7-inch iPad will come with a $329 price tag. Before thinking this is an all-new release, it’s an updated version of an iPad that was launched in March of 2017 also for $329. The new version will support the Apple Pencil stylus and a more powerful A10 Fusion processor.
There is also the notion that Apple will sell the iPad for $299 for students and schools, similar to the current generation iPad. If that is the case, even considering some of the other enhancements, is this really anything new?
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Estimates vary on which technology giants run the education technology market. The Chromebook market is said to have over half of the market, and Windows is still generally more dominant with a recent launch of Windows 10 S (for students) than Apple when it comes to laptops.
It’s not that hard to understand why Chromebook took off so well. Everyone is already using Google for search and other services. And Best Buy sells mostly refurbished Chromebooks for under $200 and many other brand new models for less than $300 as is.
It seems hard to consider this product launch a huge win for Apple. Then again, the company does often surprise the world.
Apple shares were last seen down 0.55% at $171.84 on Tuesday, in a 52-week trading range of $140.06 to $183.50.
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