Apple’s Marketing SVP Says Google’s Cheap Laptops Won’t Help Students Succeed

In a rather bold and somewhat offensive statement, Apple’s marketing SVP Phil Schiller took a dig at Google’s Chromebooks in an interview with CNET and said that students who use them are not going to succeed.

Despite his comments, the K-12 market in the U.S. is dominated by Google and Microsoft. According to Futuresource Consulting estimates, last year 60% of all laptops and tablets purchased for U.S. K-12 classrooms were Chromebooks, versus 18% for Apple products.

“Chromebooks have gotten to the classroom because, frankly, they’re cheap testing tools for required testing,” Schiller said during an interview where he was promoting a new $2,400 MacBook Pro. “If all you want to do is test kids, well, maybe a cheap notebook will do that. But they’re not going to succeed.”

Schiller tweeted after the interview and wrote, “Every child has the ability to succeed — helping them to do that has always been our mission. In the full conversation with CNET, we discussed giving kids and teachers the content, curriculum and tools they need to learn, explore and grow. Not just to take a test.”

“At the point where U.S. districts needed to purchase devices for online assessment on mass scale, Chromebooks were clearly significantly cheaper than competitive offerings,” Futuresource analyst Michael Boreham said in an email.

Apple’s own CEO Tim Cook has said, “Google’s Chromebooks are “test machines.” That’s because Chromebooks are better suited for government-mandated “Common Core” tests, which require or heavily recommend keyboards. Apple’s iPad, which Schiller calls the “ultimate tool for a child to learn on.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.