At a product reveal event in Chicago on Tuesday, Apple unveiled an updated version of its most popular iPad, with improvements and additions designed for education.
The new 9.7-inch iPad comes with functionality for an Apple Pencil, and provides users with the ability to be more creative and productive in the classroom.
“This is an important day for Apple, and we hope it’s an important day for teachers and students, too,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the event. “Our work in education continues today across the entire company.”
The new iPad starts at $329 in store for consumers, but Apple will sell it to schools at a discounted rate of $299. Available today, the new iPad features a large Retina display, the A10 Fusion chip, augmented reality capabilities and all-day battery life.
Unlike other product reveal events Apple hosts, which are usually near the tech company’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Tuesday's event took place at Chicago’s Lane Tech College Prep High School in Roscoe Village. Most of the school’s students and teachers weren’t around for the day’s events as it is their spring break.
There were more than 300 teachers from around the globe at the Apple event, and notable Chicago figureheads like 1871’s outgoing CEO Howard Tullman and Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Even Al Gore was in attendance Tuesday morning.
The day’s events were modeled after a school day, with an orientation, an assembly (in which the product announcement took place) and break out “classes” that followed, where attendees, teachers and members of the press could interact with Apple’s new products.
The new iPads and education tools could be Apple’s attempt to regain influence in the education sector that has recently been dominated by Microsoft Windows laptops and Google Chromebooks.
In the third quarter of 2017, Google software was used in about 60 percent of U.S. classrooms, according to FutureSource, a financial data firm based in Hayward, Calif. Meanwhile, Microsoft was used in about 22 percent and Apple was in just 17 percent.
In recent years, Apple has tried to remain relevant in the education sphere, and particularly in Chicago. In December, Apple announced they were bringing coding language software Swift to Chicago schools this spring as part of its “Everyone Can Code” program.
Piggybacking off that initiative, Apple introduced “Everyone Can Create” at Tuesday’s event, a free curriculum that teachers can use in their classrooms to integrate drawing, music, filmmaking or photography into their lesson plans for a variety of subjects.
They also revealed a new Apple app called Schoolwork, which will help teachers create assignments and worksheets, and monitor their students’ progress on them. Additionally, existing Apple apps, such as Numbers, Pages and Keynote, have been updated to work seamlessly with the new iPad.
“Today, learning happens everywhere, even where there might not be a desk,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of product marketing, at the event. “Students are … ultimately more successful when working with iPads.”
