Apple has Georgia on its mind

Apple is on the verge of securing one of its biggest education deals ever, with a Georgia school district leaning toward purchasing tens of thousands of Mac laptops.

The Cobb County School District, located in the Atlanta suburbs, is recommending that its school board pursue a deal with Apple to equip all teachers in the county, along with all high school and middle school students, with Apple laptops. The school district is recommending that the board implement the laptop purchase in stages, with the first phase consisting of giving laptops to teachers and to four schools on a test basis, according to a statement posted on the district's website.

Details of the proposal will be discussed at a meeting on Wednesday, with the board slated to vote on the first phase of the Apple deal next month.

An Apple representative told silicon.com's sister site CNET News.com on Tuesday: "Apple is thrilled to work with Cobb County on this ambitious proposal to create the largest one to one computer learning initiative ever. We've seen remarkable results from one to one learning programmes and find that the educational benefits reach far beyond the classroom."

Once king of the education market, Apple has lost ground to a number of Windows-based rivals, especially Dell. In recent years, Apple has focused much of its attention on so-called one-to-one deals, in which school systems buy laptops for every student in a particular grade. The company has scored large deals in Maine and Virginia, among other places.

Apple has said its efforts are paying off, although competition remains tough. Last month, the company noted that it had its best December quarter for education sales in seven years. The company said its total revenue was up 20 per cent from a year earlier, while unit sales were up 11 per cent. Higher education sales grew faster, at 25 per cent, but K-12 grew 15 per cent, amid strong demand for both the iMac and iBook.

Ina Fried writes for CNET News.com.