Reply to APS parents -- are you happy about the MacBooks and iPads? Unhappy?

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Reply to "APS parents -- are you happy about the MacBooks and iPads? Unhappy?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I ignored this thread until now.  Macbook Air's do have a higher initial cost than the low end PC's.  However, if you compare feature and quality, you find that the so called Apple Premium does not exist.  These days, t[b]he comparably build PC's[/b] (meaning processor, video, SSD drive, quality of construction) cost as much if not more than a Macbook Air.  I researched this for my fortune 500 company -- the individual unit lifecycle costs were actually lower for the apple machines across the board.   However, because of software contracts in place for the enterprise, we remain a windows shop (mostly help desk contract does not handle apple well).  Plus the cost of training the people to use apple -- not the technical staff, finance and admin people.  The final issue was that most macs (except for the MacPro) are made in china, which presented security concerns.

For a school, Apple makes sense.[/quote]

The considerations about what to buy are not as simple as that. Assuming that APS's decisions about 1:1 and restricting use to cloud-based computing were the right choice (not an assumption I am comfortable with IRL, but to keep this moving), where is the evidence that for this use, the MacBook Airs were the best way to go and, equally important, that students needed the best rather than the good or the good-enough?

We do a cost-benefit analysis for other purchases for students. Why not this time?[/quote]

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