Apple machines still dominant in K-12 schools; Wintel share increasing slightly at the expense of Macintosh

Business Wire, March 10, 1997

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 1997--Quality Education Data (QED) announces the release of Educational Technology Trends, 9th Edition.

This research report focuses on the current installed base of computers in U.S. schools and school districts, as well as future purchases planned by these two groups. For the past nine years, QED has collected this data through scientific sampling, the last two years in partnership with IDC/LINK, a New York technology research and consulting firm.

As the headline says, this report confirms that Apple is still the leading brand used in K-12 schools (districts report 60% Apple computers, while schools report 54%). Macintosh has increased its share of the installed base, as have Wintel machines.

One of the interesting trends in the just-released report is a slight increase in predicted purchases of Wintel machines for the 1996-97 school year, coupled with a small decline in Macintosh planned purchases for the same period.

In QED's survey of district-level technology coordinators, PCs made up 40% of their planned purchases for the 96-97 school year. This is a slight increase from a 36 or 37% market share in each of the past three years. The same district-level technology coordinators, who have been surveyed for nine years by QED, have indicated they plan to purchase Macintosh for 56% of their needs this year, down from 61% share for the last three years.

For the past two years, QED has also surveyed school technologists, who differ from district technologists in their predictions about brand purchase intent. School technologists predicted a greater increase in share for PCs and a corresponding decline for Macintosh. Interestingly, schools reported DOS machines for 55% of their planned purchases, but only 46% of those planned were Windows-ready machines. -0-

                  District and School Technologists Differ

                Installed Base                Intent-to-Purchase Plans
               94-95    95-96                      95-96      96-97

                        District Technologists

Mac             36%      41%         Mac            61%        56%
DOS             34%      40%         DOS            37%        40%
Apple II        28%      19%         Apple II        0%         1%
Other Non-DOS    2%       0%         Other Non-DOS   2%         3%

                        School Technologists

DOS             36%      44%         DOS            42%        55%
Mac             31%      35%         Mac            51%        41%
Apple II        29%      19%         Apple II        3%         2%
Other Non-DOS    4%       2%         Other Non-DOS   4%         2%

    Note:  QED's Ed Tech Trends, 9th Edition: Read as: District
Technologists indicated that 36% of their installed base of
instructional computers was PCs in the 94-95 school year study.