If I have any profession, it would be teacher. I’ve been teaching for about twelve years, mainly IT, at colleges and universities in four countries around the world, including the UAE. And we know Apple has always been very prominent in education, but here in the UAE they seem absent from many areas, apart from the usual suspects, so to speak, like design and media.
So why is that?
I’ve been teaching at one of the HCT colleges in the Emirates for almost three years now and the only visit from ABM (or Apple IMC ME, Apple’s representative in the Middle East) that I’ve been aware of is one demonstration of podcasting for a small (about 5) group of people. That’s it. There’s been no larger demonstration or awareness-campaign, no attempt at spreading word about Apple and Macs, etc. Admittedly something might have been going on that I didn’t know about, but as a teacher in IT, you would think that Apple would do more to make me aware of the options.
And it’s not like there is no market, even among IT students. Whenever I take my Mac to class, students look at it longingly saying the want one, and often it happens that a student wants to try it out. That’s why I have a demo account set up in Mac OS X on my MacBook Pro, so even if they want to try it, they don’t end up accidentally see the upcoming exam paper. Whenever I demo Mac OS X or some applications like iLife to my students, they go “wow”, “amazing”, and “I want one!” There’s an interest there that’s not being capitalized on.
One reason usually given for Apple’s apparent lack of presence in education here is that Macs are more expensive than PCs. And it’s true, you can buy a PC a lot cheaper than a Mac, at least if you just look at sticker price. And that’s probably even more of a problem here in the Middle East with Apple prices higher than the US, but that can’t be the only explanation.
I suspect education is the key, no pun intended. If I look around me at my IT-teaching colleagues, hardly anyone has a good idea of what Macs are really about, what Mac OS X is, and what software is available. The usual myths and misconceptions are everywhere, like Macs are only for designers, Macs are not compatible with anything, etc. And that’s among IT teachers who really should know better. But I’m not sure we can blame them. It seems to me that ABM should have been doing more to educate the teachers about Apple and Macs, and they’ve lost out on a great opportunity to spread Macs to more classrooms, more teachers, and more students.
It’s time for a change.
Education of the market is something we’ve believed very strongly in when starting EmiratesMac.com the EmiratesMac Apple User Group, and Shuffle. And it’s something that is not being done enough. I’m not necessarily talking about the traditional mass marketing now, even though it would be cool to see an Arabic Mac versus PC ad on TV. I’m talking about being out there among customers, talking to them, engaging them in discussions and debates online on web sites as well as offline at meetings and gatherings. Those are interactions that are not happening right now and if they are they are not in public which means they are not being noticed. It’s time to change that, and we’re going to do our part.