LePage picked a proposal built around Windows-based HP laptops over a lower-priced iPad tablet package that had received much higher scores from proposal reviewers. But the governor said schools which preferred to stick with the Apple technologies they've used to date -- adopting either the iPad or another proposal based on MacBooks -- could do so.
But at what price? As my story in today's Portland Press Herald relates, nobody is yet certain of the answer.
One of the salient and collateral issues regarding this somewhat murky decision is the transition time and expense from the Apple to the HP laptop; aside from what that will entail both time and costwise, were our esteemed chief executive to have opted for the lower priced iPad, this would have made a much smoother transition to the technologically savvy students who all seem to have "touch" smart phones, iPods and iPads of their own, etc. Have you ever seen the backpacks full of books these kids lug from class to class? Then, there is the Apple laptop that has also been a part of the package. The iPad tablet would have been a lot "lighter" for them to transport and taken some of the weight off their shoulders. Well,at least, Meg Whitman will be pleased.
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