Apple’s missed opportunities?

Apple just announced new products and services emphasizing impressive upgrades to its tablets and notebooks. Among the other things mentioned were changes made to FaceTime within the new operating system. What I found interesting about the changes to Facetime was the opportunity to involve multiple participants in a group video conversation. Thirty-one other individuals in addition to yourself. 

I tend to imagine educational applications for tools I use or learn about and the opportunity for educators to involve learners from different locations in seemed obvious. I have frequently taught online and the 32 person limit of the new Facetime would be sufficient for all of the classes I have taught. A free (or inexpensive) and powerful tool that is easy to use would have been quite useful.

Then reality set in. After I thought about the possibilities, I realized that no college prof would use FaceTime in this way because the use of this tool would assume that all students had access to Apple equipment. This would be an extremely rare situation in higher education.

I have reached this decision before. With my wife, I sell a textbook used in college classrooms. I sell this resource through Amazon not because I think Kindle books provide a great reader experience, but because iBook Author assumes the product generated will be experience on an Apple product. Again, instructors would not assign an e-book available only to Apple users.

I know that Apple has people far smarter than me and must realize this is the case. They claim they are champions of education, but continue with this policy. Somehow, this has to be about the money no matter what values Apple claims.