A 10% better product at 25% higher price with less than 3 % retail market share is a recipe for getting booted out of any market. The education market especially because they are extremely price conscious, and directed by school boards, which are directed by parents who don't want their children learning a useless skill (using Macs) with their own tax money.

It is always easy to critisize. Have you seen a Dell laptop closely? Have you seen how big it is, how noisy it is?
20 Dell laptops in a classroom and you cannot hear the teacher talking.
Innovation: Well, show me a PC Laptop that comes with FireWire Built in, 2 USB (all PCs laptop has 1), silent fan, 5 hours battery, a choice of CDR, DVD or DVD-CDR, Built-in antenna, Airpot ready for wireless.....

Apple loosing ground. I don't think so. You should watch Steve Jobs Press Release presentation.
Apple had the biggest Laptop growth in Education.
Apple is number on in wireless in Education.

PC Schools are still wasting entire room for PC which are used here and there. WIth Apple wireless solutioni, the computer comes to the Kid. The Kid does not go to the computer.

I think some people just don't see the big pictures. Hopefully some others do, they embrace it and help companies like Apple make the schools become a digital learning environment.

Quit whinning, and open your eyes, and stop being cheap.
Remember, quality and confort has a price.
You get what you pay for.

Owning a computer is more than the sticker price. There have been countless reports done about the MacOS and the support need to keep them running and they are less expensive in the long run.

Other things to keep in mind:

Is Airport a better and less expensive solution than running more cables throughout classrooms and buying hubs/switches?

Are the MacOS server/client administration tools better than Windows counterparts? If you are interested in spending less for an IS team they are.

And finally, if you had bought PCs from the same time you bought those 7.5.3 Macs, would they still be working and serving a useful purpose?

First of all, let's not stoop to the level of this article by calling names. Let us maintain our composure.

I have agreed with Steve Woods in the past on various issues. I do think that Apple's price increases on the iMacs are lame when compared to the insignificant revisions they have gone through. There is no excuse for them not to have a $599 iMac offering, which would be a low enough price to spawn great labs full of computers or at the very least a Mac in every classroom. It's the exposure and numbers that Apple needs in education. The speed of the machine is inconsequential. Just get a Mac in every classroom and the Mac will live on.

I however do not agree with Steve's comments on the iBook. Being a school district technology person, the iBook from the very beginning has created quite a stir. Wireless mobile connectivity will, I believe, be the future of computing in education and the iBook is the pioneer in this area. Up til now I have not been impressed by the color schemes but the Titanium look is great. Most important, it has a bright LCD display which is easy on the eyes and now the presence of FireWire for video editing and an extra USB port puts this laptop ahead of the competition. Frankly, I thought the $1299 price was a bit low.

We have several iBook mobile labs and people are going crazy wanting to use these in their classroom. I expect that we will be buying more iBooks in the future because of their resounding success.

Let's not get into talk about the transition to OS X... :)

Asking your typical elementary teacher for technology input is like asking Bill Gates for key combination short-cuts for OS 9.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bill knew most key shortcuts of Mac OS. He's been studying this OS for many years.

...and open another one. I'd bet for every student that won't get a discounted iBook, there will 5 consumers that will pay full price for one. These babies are awesome!

Computers in every classroom is a good idea, but shouldn't we be putting that money toward things like teacher salaries and infrastructure repairs? What good is a computer if the teacher can't use it and the walls around it are crumbling?