Shipments of notebook and desktop data processor to the moneymaking education securities industry have produce for Apple Computer over the last year as the company sees freight of desktops begin to surge . Apple is following the common up and down trends typically discover in the education purchasing seasons , but the ship’s company has made some headway .

PC shipments by the number

Apple presently finds itself in third post in general Department of Education computer freight , behind Dell in first position and Hewlett Packard in second spot . fill out out the top five are Lenovo and Founder .

In the United States , Apple is in second seat behind Dell . Hewlett Packard , Gateway and Lenovo round out the top five .

class over year , Apple is look growth for education shipments both in the United States and worldwide . Comparing the fourth quarter of 2004 to the quaternary fourth part of 2005 , Apple saw its educational activity computer shipments rise 15.08 percent worldwide and 13.79 percent in the United States . By comparison , Education Department leader Dell saw its worldwide shipments rise 6.51 percent , while its U.S. shipments uprise by 3.84 percent .

Apple ’s closest emergence competitor is Hewlett Packard , which view world-wide growth of 13.54 pct and 9.9 percent emergence in the United States . Gateway picture a decrement of 24.53 percent in its U.S. and Founder picture its oecumenical consignment go up by 22.52 percentage . in conclusion , Lenovo saw an gain of 1.79 per centum in U.S. growth and a decrease of 9.3 percent worldwide .

Desktops on the rise ; iPod helping

consignment of desktop computers for Apple answer for for 54 percent of its total PC shipment in the 2nd quarter of 2005 . By comparison , desktop calculate for 51.8 percent of total shipments in the 2d quarter of 2004 .

“ I do n’t think anyone expect to see growth in desktops and not see as much corresponding increment in iBooks , ” IDC Analyst , David Daoud , severalize MacCentral . “ They are by all odds doing something right , but the average sell price is $ 1200-$1300 , so it must be something other than the Mac mini . ”

Daoud order that Apple ’s blade recognition is definitely helping them keep their current plowshare of the educational activity market . Another component keep Apple in the game is the way it markets itself compared to what its competitors do .

“ Clearly what Apple has is the name acknowledgement in the didactics market and they are doing a very good line marketing it , ” said Daoud . “ They are very well entrenched in the teaching community — Apple ’s competitors really market to the IT stave . ”

One product pedigree that IDC sees helping Apple over its competitors is the diminutive iPod MP3 player . As schools and classrooms witness novel and modern ways to utilise the iPod , Daoud believes cut-rate sale work up up on the personal computer side .

“ The iPod has added another dimension in Apple ’s merchandise portfolio , ” said Daoud .

Henrico , Cobb County deal out not hurting Apple

While Apple and the press make a big deal when the company signs prominent deal with schooltime districts , there is also scores of press when those hand fail . Henrico County recently sold off all of its iBooks to a stampeding crowd , while Cobb County had to back out of its deal to due a local outrage .

What was in question , said the judge , was n’t the meritoriousness of the program , but how the money used to pay for it was justified to taxpayer . The money used was extract from a special sales tax ratified by Cobb County residents in 2003 . That money was described as pay for upgrades to the school day system ’s obsolete computers , not for a laptop program on the shell that had been plan .

Cobb County overseer of schoolhouse Joseph Redden give up in the wake of the controversy .

Even though Apple was n’t involved in the dealing of the shoal territory , they were prominently name in the news . Such negative publicity could have an affect on other territory , but IDC sound out they do n’t believe that has happened .

“ I ’m not win over that a deal that has go dour is in reality move the decision to grease one’s palms Macs in another school district , ” state Daoud .

What is missing in education for Apple ?

While Daoud praised the work Apple has done in building its education business , he said there was still more work to be done . First , Apple needs to concenter more of their metre on the IT staff and excuse the benefit of own Apple intersection .

“ They need to talk to the IT departments more about cost of ownership to make indisputable they are not watch as being more dear than others , ” said Daoud .

Daoud also does n’t see Apple as a company that is offer a full answer , which the other companies are doing . While Apple does have its Xserve and Xserve RAID merchandise lines , Daoud says he sees no evidence of them being used effectively .

“ They do offer a very good Department of Education result with computer hardware and software program , ” said Daoud . “ However if you have 30,000 - 40,000 node you need the substructure to filch all of these system together and lot with issues like growing storage motive . What I see Apple doing is selling desktop and laptop and fixing problems that come in up , but it ’s more complicated than that , which is why a vendor like Dell get the attention of the IT residential area . ”

Even with these comprehend shortcomings in offering school districts a more staring solution , IDC enunciate Apple is doing great on the customer side of the business .

“ From the customer perspective , Apple has done a fantastic line of work , ” said Daoud .