I am a school administrator looking to implement a one to one device program in our high school. Our Apple rep stated that we can reasonably expect a three year life span for an iPad versus a five year life span for a MacBook. Any thoughts on this?
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John Berlin
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iPad Vs. MacBook Life Span?
Comments: 6 Responses to “iPad Vs. MacBook Life Span?”
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Hard to say. Determining a lifespan depends on a lot of factors. The first generation iPad will be 3 in March, but I feel it still has plenty of value. Likewise for a 2008 MacBook.
But it is all subjective. A video pro, for instance, would find a 2008 MacBook frustrating to use today. A student surfing the Web and writing papers would not.
A lot might depends on software. If 3 years from now a developer creates a nice educational iPad app that you want to use, but it doesn't work on older iPads, then you have a problem. Same for Macs.
Or, perhaps I am reading this wrong. Perhaps you mean lifespan literally? I guess an iPad is easier to drop and it relies more on the battery. So a shorter lifespan might be right.
Thanks for your feedback. You read my question correctly. It is subjective and with the IPads a relatively new device it is hard to say how long thy might last.
Another thing I thought of: hard drives. They are often the first thing to fail on a computer. MacBook Pros (non-retina) have them and you would have to feel good when they last past 5 years. But iPads have solid state drives, so they should last. And, of course, the MacBook Airs have SSDs too. Soon all of them will, I'm sure.
I agree, we are looking at Airs because of the SSD's.
If you have 9th grade students using iPads, they will drop them (repeatedly), and they (iPads) will fail, Irregardless of SSD. (broken displays render an iPad useless). If you have 12th graders, only some will drop iPad. Keyboard skills are also taken into account - right? iPad doesn't provide this without external attachment of a keyboard. You must have a well-endowed school system to be leaning toward Apple (if so, more power to you). Do your students carry the machines from class-to-class? I would lean toward the Air, which is a bit harder to schlep, but highly more capable.
Hi Dave, they will have these devices 24/7. I would like the Airs but don't know if we can afford it at this point.