Andrew Melder

Seeing a student with a MacBook of any kind used to automatically typecast them  as private school kids with well off parents. Not any more. These students, for example, are from a local public high school.

Now having worked in IT for the WA Department of Education previously I know that Mac computers have very limited functionality in public schools. All web-based components are designed for IE, and as such don't work very well on Safari; all software is Windows only, not Mac; and network connectivity is limited to basic file sharing and web browsing.

Yet despite it's limited compatibility with Department approved IT services, parents and, more importantly, schools are willingly choosing to forgo approved services to invest in Mac hardware and software for their students.

This should have Microsoft worried. The next generation is learning and experiencing technology with minimal Microsoft influence. While the exception maybe the Office suite now, Microsoft's move to a primarily subscription based model for Office and the rise of software such as pages/keynote/numbers provides a good value alternative for 95% of office users.

All this means Microsoft will become less and less relevant in time unless they do something to change the conversation back to Windows. And that's before we even mention the threat Chrome OS could pose to Microsoft in an ever connected world.