Apple released a new affordable iPad model on Tuesday that supports Apple Pencil and is compatible with all-new versions of Apple’s word processing, spreadsheet and presentation apps.
The new device will bring some of Apple’s high-end specs, like Pencil support and A10 Fusion chips, to a lower-end device. It will also take the iPad back to its roots with new digital book creation features: Co-founder Steve Jobs worked both inside and outside of Apple to bring computers to college campuses, and digital textbooks was one of the original use cases that inspired the creation of the iPad, according to biographer Walter Isaacson.
Apple hosted the Tuesday launch event at Chicago’s Lane Tech College Prep High School. At the event, CEO Tim Cook emphasized the company’s investments in community colleges, as well as expanded classes at Apple’s retail locations through the “Today at Apple” program announced last year. Apple has 200,000 apps made for education, according to Apple executive Greg Joswiak, who discussed the iPad.
But while Apple products still get prominent placement in university bookstores, Google’s low-cost Chromebooks have surged to over half of all computing devices shipped to schools.
Apple’s “Everybody Can Code” program, focused on mobile apps, recently expanded to 70 more colleges, and iPad devices host Swift Playgrounds, a code education platform. Apple also said in January it would fund 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai’s women’s education advocacy. Yousafzai was shot in the head, neck and shoulder as a teen after publicly defending women’s education under Taliban rule.
On Tuesday, Cook also addressed recent U.S. gun control rallies at schools across the country and in the nation’s capital, saying Apple has “always believed that people with passion can change the world.”
— Writing by Anita Balakrishnan, reporting by Paayal Zaveri
