Macs and schools go hand in hand - but is Apple losing its grip?

The education sector has long been a stronghold for Apple, and remains so, despite the company's recent troubled times. But as its market share continues to shrink, the question must be: how long can Apple hold on to its position?

The National Grid for Learning (NGFL) - the UK government's programme for getting schools wired - was launched last year in a blaze of publicity. Education minister David Blunkett pledged £100m to get every pupil surfing and learning on the Web by 2000. Now the dust has settled, schools must decide how to spend this money.

The IT replacement rate in the education world is usually around three or four years. The cash injection will launch a new wave of education investment and will be used to revamp legacy systems over the next two years. It's a great opportunity to observe new trends in educational IT infrastructure.

But one recent contract reflects an old tradition - that Scotland's educational sector will stick with the Mac, while English schools prefer the PC.

In one of the first NGFL contract announcements, Edinburgh City Council awarded Xemplar Education a £1m contract to supply 1,000 Internet-ready Apple Macintosh computers. The Macs will be installed in classrooms around the city over the next two months and are part of a £6m investment programme across the region.

Meanwhile, back in England, Dr Margret Cox, Chair of ACITT - an organisation that advises teachers on IT spending - admits that Macs are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. A recent survey of London schools revealed that 95 per cent use a PC platform for learning and management.

This Scottish love affair with the Mac can be explained by the different purchasing structures in place in England and Scotland. Until recently, Scottish schools made their own IT purchasing decisions. Most went for Macs. English IT decision making was centrally driven from an Acorn, and now a PC, bias.

The Edinburgh contract is unlikely to be the only Scottish Mac-based investment. The Mac legacy in Scotland is considerable - between 30 and 40 per cent of schools have them. These legacy systems will control the next wave of spending.

However, there are signs that even the Scots are being pushed towards the PC. Phil Hemmings, a spokesman for Research Machines in the UK, said: "Microsoft sales teams have been getting good feelings about Scotland recently." His advice to schools that haven't yet decided on a route is to go for PCs. "Choosing Macs would be foolish because you just can't get the software," he said.

Mac die-hards will be up in arms. But this argument is becoming harder and harder to dismiss.