The Macintosh Way: Get 'Em While They're Young


Apple has finally figured out how to grow its customer base: gets Macs into kids' hands for free.

That the approach Apple, Lexmark and others are taking by giving free hardware to schools and contributing to their learning plans. It costs relatively little, but generates lots of goodwill.

Lexmark has spent about $16,500 on donated ink-jet printers, [we're assuming they're not DeskJets] educational CD-ROMs and books to elementary schools in Jefferson County, according to a story in the Courier Journal. Schools also qualify for discounts on printer products from Lexmark.

"'Apple and other companies have moved into younger end users in a very effective way by meeting them in an educational environment,'' he said. ''When we started looking at our products, it was clear that images might be an area where we could play," said Roger Rydell of Lexmark.

Rydell adds that the computer kids use at school increasingly dictates the type of PC parents purchase for the home - in effect, it's a customer loyalty program. Teachers also give the initiative the thumbs-up: the kids get to work on art projects on computers, learn how to use the software, check out canvas classics, and print out their own Rembrandt on color inkjets.

Analysis: Smart. Apple's education strategy has depended on this equation, but it's interesting to see Apple take a new approach. We don't know how much of this Apple does nation-wide or globally, but from the days of the Apple II, Jobs always knew that education was the key to Apple's success. But Apple Ed is under threat as cheap, commodity PCs are tempting purchases for schools, which frequently don't consider TCO in terms of the support salaries that cost real money.

Put it this way: donate some Mac hardware and software. Costs a few hundred thousand, may a couple of million dollars, depending on how wide you cast the net. The parents buy a Mac as well - maybe two, depending on the number of kids. How much more effective is that than putting pricey iMac ads on network TV? More to the point, you put a Mac - even a donated one - in education and that's one less Dell schools will buy. Heck, Apple could even farm out some of those inventoried, written-off CRT iMacs and the just-superseded Power Macs they're fireselling.