Apple’s Phil Schiller Trashes Chromebooks, Says They Won’t Help Kids Succeed

After announcing the 16-inch MacBook Pro, Apple’s marketing head, Phil Schiller, spoke to a couple different outlets about the newest MacBook Pro model and the cutting-edge technologies it brings.

One conversation that draw our attention was with CNET, where Phil Schiller literally trashes Google’s Chromebook computers by saying that they’re not good for learning in the classroom and won’t help students succeed. As you can imagine, everyone is upset about this comment as Chromebooks are good and cheap notebooks used by numerous people around the world in classrooms and other environments.

“Kids who are really into learning and want to learn will have better success. It’s not hard to understand why kids aren’t engaged in a classroom without applying technology in a way that inspires them. You need to have these cutting-edge learning tools to help kids really achieve their best results. Yet Chromebooks don’t do that. Chromebooks have gotten to the classroom because, frankly, they’re cheap testing tools for required testing. If all you want to do is test kids, well, maybe a cheap notebook will do that. But they’re not going to succeed,” said Phil Schiller in the CNET interview.

Doesn’t matter what device you’re using

As you can imagine, Phil Schiller is wrong here, and the fact of the matter is that you don’t need a certain device to succeed in life. It’s true that everyone deserves the best tools they can get to succeed, but that’s not necessarily the case for students, most of which are sponsored by their parents who, in most cases, work day and night to give their kids the best learning experience. So Chromebooks are a very good and cheap alternative to Apple’s very expensive Mac notebooks.

MacBooks are usually very expensive devices and not everyone can afford one, and surely the latest MacBook Pro won’t help either. If Apple wants students to succeed, they will need to create a cheaper MacBook that anyone can afford, than take on the Chromebook. To clarify things a bit, Apple’s Phil Schiller took to Twitter to say that “every child has the ability to succeed,” but he’s actually saying the same thing, not apologizing for trashing Chromebooks. So what do you think, are Chromebooks good or bad for the classroom?

Every child has the ability to succeed — helping them to do that has always been our mission. In the full conversation with CNET, we discussed giving kids and teachers the content, curriculum and tools they need to learn, explore and grow. Not just to take a test.
— Philip Schiller (@pschiller) November 13, 2019