TEST: Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft: How 4 Tech Titans Are Reshaping the Ed-Tech Landscape

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Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft: How 4 Tech Titans Are Reshaping the Ed-Tech Landscape Imagine that you have been asked to hire one of the following companies to help improve student achievement in your school district. Which one would you hire?* Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 5%

Amazon Education, 1%

Pearson Education, 6%

McGraw-Hill Education, 7%

Google for Education, 52%

Scholastic Education, 9%

Apple Education, 13%

*Totals may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding .

Titans of the technology world are battling to win the hearts and minds of American educators. As Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft make strategic moves to win access to American schools—and the schoolchildren who could be their future customers— they also pose a serious and growing competitive threat to large education-focused companies such as Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, and Scholastic. In April 2017, EdWeek Market Brief and the Education Week Research Center set out to take stock of the K-12 technology market by surveying 1,000 teachers and administrators about these eight companies and their products. In this research report, we offer a first look at the results, with more to come in Market Brief.

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Google Quickly Builds a Dominating Presence If one thing is clear from the survey, it is that Google is becoming the dominant player in the ed-tech market. Our past research suggests that a company’s ability to help move the needle on student achievement is the single biggest driver of ed-tech purchasing and perceptions—even more than fundamental concerns such as reliability or cost. When we asked educators which of the eight companies they would most want to hire to help improve student achievement in their school districts, Google for Education was the top choice, and it wasn’t even close. More than half of educators would choose Google. Just 13 percent favored the next most popular option, Apple Education. And 9 percent would hire Scholastic, the top choice of the four education-focused companies we asked about included on the survey.

Why Are Educators Turning to Google?

We didn’t just ask educators which of the eight companies they would hire to improve student achievement in their districts. We asked them why. When it comes to the 52 percent of educators who would hire Google for Education, the reason is clear: Google products are perceived as easy to use.

“It is compatible with other educational sites and easy for students to access at home,” a Houston-area teacher writes in her survey response. “Many children don’t have computers, and Google makes it easy to do assignments from their phones.”

Ease of use is the No. 1 reason why educators would hire Google. By contrast, the top reason educators would hire other companies is that they view them as established providers with well-known products. Interestingly, when compared with educators who would hire a different company, educators who would hire Google are slightly less likely to say they would do so because of the effectiveness and quality of its products. But they are significantly more likely to favor Google because its products are perceived as not only affordable but also innovative.

“Google just tends to be ahead of everyone except Apple, which is not in our district’s budget,” a rural Colorado teacher explains in her survey-question response. | 2|

ABOUT THE REPORT: In April 2017, EdWeek Market Brief and the Education Week Research Center administered an online survey to a nationally-representative sample of about 1,000 K-12 teachers and district-level administrators, including superintendents, chief academic officers, and ed-tech leaders.

The survey used a combination of openended and multiple-choice questions to gauge educators’ perceptions of products and brands associated with four giant technology companies that have made inroads into the K-12 marketplace—Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL), and Microsoft (MSFT)—and four major education-focused companies that are among the biggest and longest-standing players in the sector: Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt (HMHC), McGrawHill, Pearson (PSO), and Scholastic (SCHL).

ABOUT EDWEEK MARKET BRIEF: Market Brief is a news and business intelligence service producing original reporting, deep analysis, and proprietary, actionable, and data-driven research that is focused on how schools evaluate, purchase, and use K-12 products and services as well as the strategies and tactics education companies use to serve schools.

More information: marketbrief.edweek.org/ ABOUT THE EDUCATION WEEK RESEARCH CENTER: The Education Week Research Center is a full-service research institute that produces proprietary, objective analyses for Market Brief, sister publication Education Week, and for external clients, including companies and nonprofit organizations in the K-12 education space. For more information on custom research, contact us at rcInfo@epe.org.

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Why Would You Hire This Company to Improve Student Achievement in Your School District?* 25%

Ease of use of products

16% 24%

Established provider and known products

30% 23%

Effectiveness and quality of products

27% 18%

Innovativeness

5% 15%

Prior use and/or products already in use

Affordability

12%

1% I would hire a company other than Google

8%

Good resources to use with the products

Customer service

I would hire Google

12%

16% 4% 5%

This chart compares responses from educators who would hire Google for Education to improve student achievement in their districts with educators who would hire one of the seven other companies included on the survey (Amazon Education, Apple Education, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Microsoft Education, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson Education, or Scholastic Education).

Favorable Perceptions of Google Translate Into Stronger Market Share When it comes to Google, survey results suggest that educators are willing to put their money where their mouths are. More than 40 percent of educators report that Chromebooks—a Google product—are the school-provided devices they use most often for instructional purposes in their districts or classrooms. That’s 27 percentage points more than the No. 2 competitor, PC laptops, which are the go-to tools for 15 percent of educators. Google’s productivity tools also dominate U.S. classrooms, crushing mainstay Microsoft Office. More than two-thirds of educators use Google’s G-Suite and/or Classroom most often for school-related purposes, while 17 percent use Microsoft Office 365 and/or Classroom most often.

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*Results based on the following question: “Which of the following are used for schoolrelated purposes MOST FREQUENTLY in your district or (if you are a teacher) in your classroom?”

Productivity Tools Most Frequently Used in U.S. Classrooms* We do not use any of these products, 14% Apple iWork and/or Apple Classroom, 1%

Microsoft Office 365 and/or Microsoft Classroom, 17% Google Gsuite and/or Google Classroom, 68%

Hardware used most frequently for instructional purposes in U.S. classrooms* Chromebook

42%

PC latop

15%

PC desk top

13%

iPad

13%

Apple/Mac laptop

9%

Other Apple/Mac desktop Microsoft Surface Amazon Kindle

*Totals may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding. Results are based on the following question: “Which of the following schoolprovided tools do educators and students use most frequently for instructional purposes in your district or (if you are a teacher) in your classroom?”

6% 2% 1% 0.50%

In fact, Google falls short in just one category we asked about: apps and e-Book stores that are digital-sales portals for content. No one company really dominates this market, but of those who play in this sandbox, Apple apps/ iTunes U/ iBooks has the biggest market share (25 percent), followed by Microsoft apps for Windows (18 percent), with Google Play/Google Play Books finishing fourth (14 percent), behind Pearson’s digital content (15 percent). So, even as Google dominates hardware and software, it is not the main source of the education-related content used in schools. | 4|

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Areas Where Google Is Not Dominating Which products are paving the path to popularity?

Here, the story gets more interesting: Despite their meteoric rise to market dominance, Chromebooks are not necessarily the across-the-board favorite among educators. On many measures—including privacy/security, durability, and even the all-important ability to support higher student achievement—educators’ perceptions of Chromebooks are slightly less favorable or virtually indistinguishable from their views of the other devices that are most frequently used in U.S. classrooms: PC laptops and iPads.

Perceptions of Digital Devices Most Frequently Used in U.S. Schools* 75%

44% 42%

Easy to use

Affordable 17%

71% 70%

39%

25%

Enables personalized learning

39%

Helps boost student engagement

67%

48%

72% 54%

38%

82% 53%

Does what I need it to do 50% Leads to better instruction

64%

60% 59%

43% 45% 41%

25%

39% 45% 37% 39%

Integrates with other tools

38% Supports higher student achievement

30%

28% 28% 32%

Durable

Saves time

30% 32%

17%

19%

PC desktops 37% iPads

*Chart reports the percentage of educators who say the school -provided device they use most frequently in their districts

15% 13% 16% 11% 4% 4%

Glitch-free

13%

or classrooms fits the descriptions above.

9%

7% 8% 4% 8%

Helpful customer service 0%

10%

PC laptops

38%

19% 25% 21% 18%

Reduces effort

44%

37%

34% 36% 34%

Keeps things organized

Private and secure

Chromebooks

20%

30%

40%

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50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

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In fact, iPads outstrip Chromebooks on one metric that research indicates matters a great deal to educators—student engagement. Upwards of 80 percent of frequent iPad users say the devices help improve student engagement, compared with 64 percent of frequent Chromebook users. Chromebooks strongly dominate just one category: affordability. But if affordability is truly the Chromebook’s major advantage to educators, it may eventually find itself vulnerable to other low-cost competitors.

Perceptions of Productivity Tools Used Most Frequently in U.S. Schools* Keeps things organized

70%

50%

68%

Easy to use

57% 59%

Does what I need it to do

53% 59%

Helps boost student engagement

26% 57%

Affordable

23% 56%

Saves time

33% 53%

Enables personalized learning

26% 51%

Integrates with other tools

37%

Leads to better instruction

41%

Supports higher student achievement

25% 33%

Reduces effort

Google G-Suite and/or Google Classroom

14% 26%

Private and secure

22% 15%

Durable

Microsoft Office 365 and/or Microsoft Classroom

7% 13%

Glitch-free Helpful customer service

51%

24%

6% 10% 4%

*Chart reports the percentage of educators who report that the tool they use most frequently in their classrooms fits the descriptions above.

Google vs. Microsoft: Software Tools Survey results suggest large differences between perceptions of Google G-Suite and/or Google Classroom versus Microsoft Office 365 and/or Microsoft Classroom, the next-closest competitor. Among the frequent users who know each tool the best, G-Suite/Classroom outstrips Office 365/Classroom on each of the 15 metrics we used to evaluate educator perceptions of functionality and academic value. Frequent users of G-Suite and Google Classroom are about 60 percent more likely than Office 365 and Microsoft Classroom users to report that their productivity tools support higher student achievement. They are more than twice as likely to say their productivity tools help boost student engagement. | 6|

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What Does the Future Hold?

All signs suggest that Google’s rise in K-12 education will continue. We asked administrators, including superintendents and chief financial officers, how they expect their school districts’ investments in digital devices to change over the next two years. Ninety percent expect to increase their investment in Chromebooks, and just 2 percent expect to spend less on that product. The next-closest competitor is the iPad. Although one-third of administrators expect their investments in iPads to increase, 22 percent expect to spend less on this type of device.

In the next two years, how do you expect your district’s investment in the following products will change, if at all?* 2% Google Chromebooks

8%

90%

Apple iPads

22%

PC laptops

22%

Microsoft Surface Mac/Apple laptops Mac/Apple desktops Amazon Kindles PC desktops

45%

33%

49%

19%

29%

55%

21%

26%

55% 37%

51%

41%

13%

50%

46%

Decrease

24%

46%

Stay the Same

9% 9%

Increase

*Totals may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding. This question was only asked of district leaders, not teachers. For each product, results exclude users who selected the following option: “N/A—We do not own any of these products and do not plan to change that.”

We also asked teachers and administrators how they expected the use of a variety of products to change over the next five years. The results again suggest growth for Google, with more than three-quarters of educators predicting that they will use Chromebooks and Google tools more or a lot more for instructional purposes, and fewer than 5 percent predicting decreases in usage. By contrast, fewer than half of educators say iPad and Apple app use will increase over the next five years, while roughly 15 percent predict they will use those tools less. Fewer than 1 in 3 educators expect to increase their use of Microsoft products and tools. More than 1 in 5 say Microsoft usage will decline.

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How product use is expected to change over the next 5 years 1% Chromebooks 3% 1% 1% Google tools iPads

5%

Apple apps

4%

Microsoft Office and other tools

5%

McGraw-Hill Education products/services

5%

Pearson Education products/services

5%

Amazon products/services Houghton Mifflin Harcourt products/services

43%

41%

15%

30%

41%

12% 15%

9%

22%

47%

16%

16%

31%

36%

11% 11%

66%

11%

61%

14%

13%

62%

15% A lot less

Less

Same

More

5% 5% 5%

32%

55%

4% 5% 6%

47%

30%

18% 15%

4%

A lot more

*Totals may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding. For each product/service, results exclude respondents who selected the following option: “N/A—I do not use this product.”

Implications for Educational Content Producers The results of the EdWeek Market Brief survey suggest that more than 70 percent of administrators expect their investments in educational technology to grow over the next year. Google will almost certainly continue to soak up the largest share of those additional dollars. And while Google is not directly involved in the instructional-content market, its dominance of hardware and software is so strong that it would be a small step for the tech giant to impact the education market by favoring, for instance, one type of content over another. Given the company’s public image as a champion of open access, however, that might never occur. But at the very least, legacy players that produce online instructional materials may already find themselves catering to Google’s tools, and competing in a very real way with the open educational resources these tools encourage by linking seamlessly to the company’s famous search engine.

But don’t underestimate the other big tech companies and the large education companies. Change happens at an increasingly rapid pace in the technology world, meaning the ed-tech landscape could shift significantly between now and next year.

Follow-Up Survey Results Coming Soon Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft: How 4 Tech Titans Are Reshaping the Ed-Tech Landscape has provided a first look at the Market Brief survey results. Future reports in the premium-content section of EdWeek Market Brief will provide further analyses on such topics as: •Administrators’ experiences purchasing from Amazon Education, Apple Education, Google for Education, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Microsoft Education, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson Education, and Scholastic Education •Segmentation by individual demographics (e.g., teacher vs. administrator) and district demographics (e.g., higher- vs. lower-poverty school systems) •Additional analyses of brand perceptions, including Net Promoter Scores assessing brand loyalty. | 8|

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