There were lots of “head scratching” when Apple recently announced that the iPad 2 will still be available for sale after the unveiling of their new iPad line up. However, Elia Freedman of Elisa Insider provides us with a very interesting view of why this is the case.
I learned in my years of selling to schools these important lessons. This was a major problem for Palm in education. Every time a school was ready to make a purchase decision, the devices they were evaluating were gone and new devices took their place. A whole new decision needed to be made. To make matters even worse, the devices changed drastically from generation to generation, with different connectors, device sizes and layouts. Even three devices all shipping at the same time would have completely incompatible connectors.
While decisions based around timing and equity generally don’t play out in the business world, they play a major part in education purchase decisions. Apple, who has sold to education a lot longer than Palm did, clearly understands this. Connectors have remained relatively stable, every iPad basically look and function the same, devices are kept around for multiple years to facilitate the purchase decision, and they function for years afterward so schools can get their money’s worth.
