Chromebooks push Apple out of the US educational market

The US educational market was one of Apple's traditional strongholds, but in recent years Google's Chromebook is pushing the Cupertino company out of the market. Three years ago Chromebooks accounted for less than 1 percent of this market, but nowadays they're more popular than Apple's products. The adoption of Chromebooks was spurred by the computerization of standardized testing, which makes keyboards an absolute necessity. Furthermore, Chromebooks only cost about half as much as an iPad, and they integrate seamlessly with widely-used Google Apps like Gmail, Docs and Calendar.

In an interview with Buzzfeed, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded that Apple is interesting in helping students learn and teachers teach, but that the company has no interest in creating cheap "test machines":

“Assessments don’t create learning,” Cook said in an interview with BuzzFeed News Wednesday, calling the cheap laptops that have proliferated through American classrooms mere “test machines.”

“We are interested in helping students learn and teachers teach, but tests, no,” Cook said. “We create products that are whole solutions for people — that allow kids to learn how to create and engage on a different level.”