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I think Chromebooks will still dominate because: 1. Chromebooks have a much better web browsing experience than iPads. The web is where a lot of classroom exer

I think Chromebooks will still dominate because: 1. Chromebooks have a much better web browsing experience than iPads. The web is where a lot of classroom exercises and materials are distributed. It also provides a lot of flexibility in terms of loading new applications. 2. Physical keyboard means that there's more room to display content. Imagine typing up a book report on an on screen keyboard, or creating a presentation.

staplers 9y ago
I've slowly moved most of my mobile experience back to browser (safari) due to storage savings for things like images/music/tv shows. Same with my laptop. Modern browsers and web apps can mimic computing environments while outsourcing the storage problem. I see the future moving in this direction as well.
robterrell 9y ago
My kids have school-issued iPads and type reports with the on-screen keyboard filling half the screen. They're totally used to it. They seem to prefer the iPad to using a chromebook.
- Someone1234 9y ago
  > kids have school-issued iPads [..] They seem to prefer the iPad to using a chromebook. So they have school issued Chromebooks too? Or is that just supposition?
- kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
  iPad === status++. Of course they're going to prefer it regardless of rational merits either way.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - dagw 9y ago
    iPad === status++ Still? Maybe it's because I live in a nice upper middle class area and have nice upper middle class friends, but I don't think anybody, at any age, sees the iPad as a status symbol.
    - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
      Conduct an experiment and see how your upper middle class kids respond when their iWant is replaced with a downmarket Google product.
- beenBoutIT 9y ago
  Understand that the kids with Chromebooks are learning how to use Linux while they improve their typing skills.
  - robterrell 9y ago
    ...they are learning how to use Linux? Not one bit. I bought my kids cheap low-end chromebooks, and they also get chromebooks issued to them during certain classes. There's zero linux learning going on there. They can't go into developer mode. There's no more linux learning there than there is BSD learning on an iPad. They are only learning the Google Docs ecosystem. It's awesome if indoctrination in software ecosystem lock-in is your thing. "But let the kids go with their preference so they can be dumb wage slaves" -- Nice. Thanks for the implication that I'm a bad parent for letting them complete their schoolwork on the iPad as they are required by their teachers.
    - beenBoutIT 9y ago
      *Chromebooks with Developer Mode https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/poking-around-your-chrome-os-device https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/poking-around-your-chro... iOS has nothing like this.
      - kylec 9y ago
        It's been a while since I was a student, but assuming that schools' attitude towards technology is still the same you'd probably get detention and your school-issued Chromebook confiscated if you tried to enable developer mode.
      - robterrell 9y ago
        developer mode is locked out of school chromebooks. for obvious reasons.
        beenBoutIT 9y ago
        this is only going to make kids want developer mode more, even if obtaining it requires dropping $200 on a personal chromebook.
jowiar 9y ago
The pencil is a game changer for many things. For students, doing math/physics/thinking spatially anything that isn't fundamentally "typing". For teachers -- grading/marking up assignments.
- giobox 9y ago
  > The pencil is a game changer for many things. The pencil support is nice to have. Game changer? I'm not so sure.
  - garmaine 9y ago
    Have you tried it? I think "game changer" is entirely appropriate. It fundamentally transforms the user interface in a way that better reflects the needs of education environments.
    - giobox 9y ago
      I own two iPad Pros, both with pencil support and have two Apple Pencils. I still don't regard it to be "game changing" for education, at least not in its current form. > It fundamentally transforms the user interface in a way that better reflects the needs of education environments. Until we see software that reflects this, this hasn't happened. Hardware support is only half the story here. The iPad user experience is still fundamentally largely the same regardless of using the pencil or not. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to have and I can see why kids will love drawing with it. I just don't subscribe to the idea it's somehow a game changer yet.
    - alexashka 9y ago
      As someone who's used many styluses over the years - they're all way too heavy, and the feel of pen or pencil on paper, is still far superior to any stylus to screen that I've experienced. My younger brother wanted an iPad to do school notes on in University - that lasted about one week, and it wasn't the software, it's just clunky compared to pen and paper still. When they get the weight down (of both the iPad and the pencil), the screen has texture, and the responsiveness improves by 2-5x, then it'll be a game changer. For now, it's a useful tool in very narrow scenarios (artists mostly)
JohnTHaller 9y ago
Plus, you can get a 2-in-1 Chromebook that converts from laptop to tent to chunky tablet for $50 less than the cost of the iPad even with the $29 educational discount.
kylec 9y ago
Chromebooks will still dominate in education because this new iPad isn’t practically different than the outgoing model. It’s the same price, the same materials (e.g. no increased durability), has no built-in or included keyboard, and while Pencil support is nice, I don’t see many schools shelling $100 (1/3 the cost of the iPad itself) for each student to get one. I just don’t see how this changes anything when it comes to iPad’s appeal in education.
chatmasta 9y ago
Why can’t you just use a Bluetooth keyboard?
- macspoofing 9y ago
  You can. More money. More things to configure. More things to break. More things to lose.
  - chrisseaton 9y ago
    How can you lose a keyboard?
    - bryanlarsen 9y ago
      You don't have kids, do you?
      - monkmartinez 9y ago
        I do... my 10 year old son lost a brand new pair of Under Armor shoes two weeks ago. Gone. Poof. It was maddening as hell, but then I realized that I have lost bigger more expensive things as well. Also, I was a kid too... So I took a deep breath and he used his birthday money to buy himeself a new pair. I didn't have to raise my voice... he just "knew" not to test on this.
      - chrisseaton 9y ago
        Yeah I do.
    - macspoofing 9y ago
      Issues that are trivial at the level of the individual become logistics headaches when you scale out to thousands or tens of thousands of individuals.
  - chatmasta 9y ago
    True. That said, if a school is spending 300 per student on an iPad, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to spend another 40 on a keyboard.
Teckla 9y ago
As someone that uses his iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard frequently, I'd say the bigger issue is lack of mouse support in iOS. It's terrible to have to keep reaching up and pawing at the screen.
- FeloniousHam 9y ago
  This. My wife uses a iPad + keyboard as her sole computer, and lack of a mouse is her only complaint.
- soylentcola 9y ago
  I wonder why this hasn't been added yet. I haven't used my iPad2 in a couple of years but back when I got it (due to the lack of any reasonably comparable devices running Android or Windows at the time) I remember jailbreaking it as soon as possible. I installed a few things from the Cydia store to overcome what I saw as missing functionality--stuff like adding a number row to the keyboard so I didn't have to keep toggling between letters and numbers, improving notifications, forcing resized phone apps to use a higher resolution, etc. One major app allowed me to connect a bluetooth mouse and use that for typical mousy stuff. In the years since I was tinkering with that iPad, I've seen so many of my initial complaints fixed so I'm surprised that mouse support isn't on the list yet.
debt 9y ago
We're talking about kids here. Chromebooks have a short lifespan in the hands of kids. If they fall apart and slow down after a year, then what's the point? The iPad is a more decent product for the price, lasts longer, and has the backing of the Apple ecosystem. It's a more durable product. Not to mention, Apple has AppleCare which should expedite repairs and replacements. Apple provides a better overall ecosystem.
- extra88 9y ago
  Why would a Chromebook slow down after a year? They're not Windows computers and don't have magnetic drives. I doubt an iPad without a case is more durable in the hands of children. Plenty of vendors selling Chromebooks offer warranties, at least to institutions, that are longer and better than AppleCare. AppleCare for iPads is limited to two years, not two additional years as it is for Macs, two years total [0]. If a kid breaks a Chromebook, they turn it in, get another that they can immediately use just by logging in, and the school's IT can get it repaired or even replaced under warranty. If by "ecosystem" you mean "App Store," sure it's better but Chromebooks are mainly used on the web, no store required. The Chromebook management ecosystem is decidedly better than the one for iPads. You can make management better for iPads by paying for a 3rd party MDM like Jamf but that significantly adds to the total cost of ownership. I generally like Apple and Apple products but I also think keyboard skills are important and what Google has made with Chromebooks, G-Suite, and the hardware management are really nice and have room for a variety of hardware designs and price points. [0] https://www.apple.com/support/products/ipad.html https://www.apple.com/support/products/ipad.html
- datguacdoh 9y ago
  I don't agree that an iPad is more durable for kids than the education focused Chromebooks, like the new lenovos that came out with drop resistance and spill proof keyboards: https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/lenovo-n-series/300e-Chromebook/p/88ELC1S9997 https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/lenovo-n-series... Disclosure: I work at Google but not remotely on chromebooks.
pjmlp 9y ago
Chromebooks domination is specific to US, they are hardly seen anywhere else.
- amanzi 9y ago
  Chromebooks are dominant in schools down here in NZ.
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    Here in Europe they are largely ignored at a corner in most consumer chains, being sold at increasing discounts until someone takes them. You can watch this effect, by finding a shop with one and then visiting it regularly afterwards. Most parents just get a regular notebook.

staplers 9y ago

I've slowly moved most of my mobile experience back to browser (safari) due to storage savings for things like images/music/tv shows. Same with my laptop. Modern browsers and web apps can mimic computing environments while outsourcing the storage problem. I see the future moving in this direction as well.

robterrell 9y ago

My kids have school-issued iPads and type reports with the on-screen keyboard filling half the screen. They're totally used to it. They seem to prefer the iPad to using a chromebook.

Someone1234 9y ago
> kids have school-issued iPads [..] They seem to prefer the iPad to using a chromebook. So they have school issued Chromebooks too? Or is that just supposition?
kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
iPad === status++. Of course they're going to prefer it regardless of rational merits either way.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- dagw 9y ago
  iPad === status++ Still? Maybe it's because I live in a nice upper middle class area and have nice upper middle class friends, but I don't think anybody, at any age, sees the iPad as a status symbol.
  - kevin_thibedeau 9y ago
    Conduct an experiment and see how your upper middle class kids respond when their iWant is replaced with a downmarket Google product.
beenBoutIT 9y ago
Understand that the kids with Chromebooks are learning how to use Linux while they improve their typing skills.
- robterrell 9y ago
  ...they are learning how to use Linux? Not one bit. I bought my kids cheap low-end chromebooks, and they also get chromebooks issued to them during certain classes. There's zero linux learning going on there. They can't go into developer mode. There's no more linux learning there than there is BSD learning on an iPad. They are only learning the Google Docs ecosystem. It's awesome if indoctrination in software ecosystem lock-in is your thing. "But let the kids go with their preference so they can be dumb wage slaves" -- Nice. Thanks for the implication that I'm a bad parent for letting them complete their schoolwork on the iPad as they are required by their teachers.
  - beenBoutIT 9y ago
    *Chromebooks with Developer Mode https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/poking-around-your-chrome-os-device https://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/poking-around-your-chro... iOS has nothing like this.
    - kylec 9y ago
      It's been a while since I was a student, but assuming that schools' attitude towards technology is still the same you'd probably get detention and your school-issued Chromebook confiscated if you tried to enable developer mode.
    - robterrell 9y ago
      developer mode is locked out of school chromebooks. for obvious reasons.
      - beenBoutIT 9y ago
        this is only going to make kids want developer mode more, even if obtaining it requires dropping $200 on a personal chromebook.

jowiar 9y ago

The pencil is a game changer for many things. For students, doing math/physics/thinking spatially anything that isn't fundamentally "typing". For teachers -- grading/marking up assignments.

giobox 9y ago
> The pencil is a game changer for many things. The pencil support is nice to have. Game changer? I'm not so sure.
- garmaine 9y ago
  Have you tried it? I think "game changer" is entirely appropriate. It fundamentally transforms the user interface in a way that better reflects the needs of education environments.
  - giobox 9y ago
    I own two iPad Pros, both with pencil support and have two Apple Pencils. I still don't regard it to be "game changing" for education, at least not in its current form. > It fundamentally transforms the user interface in a way that better reflects the needs of education environments. Until we see software that reflects this, this hasn't happened. Hardware support is only half the story here. The iPad user experience is still fundamentally largely the same regardless of using the pencil or not. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to have and I can see why kids will love drawing with it. I just don't subscribe to the idea it's somehow a game changer yet.
  - alexashka 9y ago
    As someone who's used many styluses over the years - they're all way too heavy, and the feel of pen or pencil on paper, is still far superior to any stylus to screen that I've experienced. My younger brother wanted an iPad to do school notes on in University - that lasted about one week, and it wasn't the software, it's just clunky compared to pen and paper still. When they get the weight down (of both the iPad and the pencil), the screen has texture, and the responsiveness improves by 2-5x, then it'll be a game changer. For now, it's a useful tool in very narrow scenarios (artists mostly)

JohnTHaller 9y ago

Plus, you can get a 2-in-1 Chromebook that converts from laptop to tent to chunky tablet for $50 less than the cost of the iPad even with the $29 educational discount.

kylec 9y ago

Chromebooks will still dominate in education because this new iPad isn’t practically different than the outgoing model. It’s the same price, the same materials (e.g. no increased durability), has no built-in or included keyboard, and while Pencil support is nice, I don’t see many schools shelling $100 (1/3 the cost of the iPad itself) for each student to get one. I just don’t see how this changes anything when it comes to iPad’s appeal in education.

chatmasta 9y ago

Why can’t you just use a Bluetooth keyboard?

macspoofing 9y ago
You can. More money. More things to configure. More things to break. More things to lose.
- chrisseaton 9y ago
  How can you lose a keyboard?
  - bryanlarsen 9y ago
    You don't have kids, do you?
    - monkmartinez 9y ago
      I do... my 10 year old son lost a brand new pair of Under Armor shoes two weeks ago. Gone. Poof. It was maddening as hell, but then I realized that I have lost bigger more expensive things as well. Also, I was a kid too... So I took a deep breath and he used his birthday money to buy himeself a new pair. I didn't have to raise my voice... he just "knew" not to test on this.
    - chrisseaton 9y ago
      Yeah I do.
  - macspoofing 9y ago
    Issues that are trivial at the level of the individual become logistics headaches when you scale out to thousands or tens of thousands of individuals.
- chatmasta 9y ago
  True. That said, if a school is spending 300 per student on an iPad, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to spend another 40 on a keyboard.

Teckla 9y ago

As someone that uses his iPad with a Bluetooth keyboard frequently, I'd say the bigger issue is lack of mouse support in iOS. It's terrible to have to keep reaching up and pawing at the screen.

FeloniousHam 9y ago
This. My wife uses a iPad + keyboard as her sole computer, and lack of a mouse is her only complaint.
soylentcola 9y ago
I wonder why this hasn't been added yet. I haven't used my iPad2 in a couple of years but back when I got it (due to the lack of any reasonably comparable devices running Android or Windows at the time) I remember jailbreaking it as soon as possible. I installed a few things from the Cydia store to overcome what I saw as missing functionality--stuff like adding a number row to the keyboard so I didn't have to keep toggling between letters and numbers, improving notifications, forcing resized phone apps to use a higher resolution, etc. One major app allowed me to connect a bluetooth mouse and use that for typical mousy stuff. In the years since I was tinkering with that iPad, I've seen so many of my initial complaints fixed so I'm surprised that mouse support isn't on the list yet.

debt 9y ago

We're talking about kids here. Chromebooks have a short lifespan in the hands of kids. If they fall apart and slow down after a year, then what's the point? The iPad is a more decent product for the price, lasts longer, and has the backing of the Apple ecosystem. It's a more durable product. Not to mention, Apple has AppleCare which should expedite repairs and replacements. Apple provides a better overall ecosystem.

extra88 9y ago
Why would a Chromebook slow down after a year? They're not Windows computers and don't have magnetic drives. I doubt an iPad without a case is more durable in the hands of children. Plenty of vendors selling Chromebooks offer warranties, at least to institutions, that are longer and better than AppleCare. AppleCare for iPads is limited to two years, not two additional years as it is for Macs, two years total [0]. If a kid breaks a Chromebook, they turn it in, get another that they can immediately use just by logging in, and the school's IT can get it repaired or even replaced under warranty. If by "ecosystem" you mean "App Store," sure it's better but Chromebooks are mainly used on the web, no store required. The Chromebook management ecosystem is decidedly better than the one for iPads. You can make management better for iPads by paying for a 3rd party MDM like Jamf but that significantly adds to the total cost of ownership. I generally like Apple and Apple products but I also think keyboard skills are important and what Google has made with Chromebooks, G-Suite, and the hardware management are really nice and have room for a variety of hardware designs and price points. [0] https://www.apple.com/support/products/ipad.html https://www.apple.com/support/products/ipad.html
datguacdoh 9y ago
I don't agree that an iPad is more durable for kids than the education focused Chromebooks, like the new lenovos that came out with drop resistance and spill proof keyboards: https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/lenovo-n-series/300e-Chromebook/p/88ELC1S9997 https://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/lenovo-n-series... Disclosure: I work at Google but not remotely on chromebooks.

pjmlp 9y ago

Chromebooks domination is specific to US, they are hardly seen anywhere else.

amanzi 9y ago
Chromebooks are dominant in schools down here in NZ.
- pjmlp 9y ago
  Here in Europe they are largely ignored at a corner in most consumer chains, being sold at increasing discounts until someone takes them. You can watch this effect, by finding a shop with one and then visiting it regularly afterwards. Most parents just get a regular notebook.