The L. A Unified School District has signed a $30 million exclusive contract with Apple on Tuesday, to provide every student with a fourth generation iPad.
Apple has secured a massive deal from L.A. Unified School District to provide all students with a fourth generation Apple iPad with 32 GB internal storage. The contract makes Apple the sole provider of its iPads to 640,000 students across 1,087 schools spread over L.A.'s 720 square miles in the coming years. The school board has also committed to spend "hundreds of millions of dollars" with Apple over the next two years to provide all the schools with an iPad. The approval of the current deal will see the Cupertino, California-based digital giant supplying up to 35,000 iPads to 47 schools in the LAUSD system.
Apple was a clear winner with 6 out of 6 votes in favor of approving the contract for Apple exclusively as its quality products met all the specs of the school district and was the least expensive option too, according to LA Times.
The Apple product was chosen for students after a series of tests conducted with different devices by students, teachers and a review panel. The LAUSD is paying $678 for each device, which is $79 more than the price of the iPads in retail stores. But Apple justifies the additional charge for each iPad as it will be pre-installing the Pearson Common Core System of Courses and additional apps including iWork suite, iLife, iTunes along with other third party educational software. But the price for each iPad does not include a keyboard, which is highly essential for high-school students. Apple gives a three year warranty for every iPad with free replacement machines for up to 5 percent of the value of the contract, says the report.
Although the decision was an easy one for the district board, some among the board members like Steve Zimmer and Richard Vladovic raised concerns about the lack of detailed pricing information and also that other device makers were providing more educational value.
"This is one of the most high-profile contracts this board will ever approve," LA Times quoted Zimmer saying. This contract is "as big as they come."
Robyn Hines, senior director of state government affairs for Microsoft, suggested using multiple platforms to rely on, which could help in future price deductions and innovations. Hines added that using Microsoft, widely used in businesses, can help students learn on the same machines which they will be exposed to in the future.
