

Tell HN: Thinking about making a K-12 app now? Know how education pricing works. - pflats

I figure a lot of hackers out there have noticed Apple's push behind the iPad into the education market today. As an educator, I just want to make sure that those of you who are looking to make an app for the classroom, especially in the K-12 market, are aware of how schools deal with buying iOS apps.<p>First, and most importantly, unlike apps for private use, schools pay <i>per device</i> for your application. This is new for the 2011-2012 school year, so schools are feeling a lot of sticker shock. This is going to drastically affect your price point.<p>Second, schools have to pre-pay for their volume purchase, in vouchers starting at $100. Expect school systems to set a budget for apps at the beginning of the year, use one PO to buy the vouchers, and then not buy more except in very extenuating circumstances. (Your app will not be an outstanding circumstance. One by Apple or Pearson might be.) School budgets are very involiatle and only refresh once a year; if a school cannot afford your app in October, they cannot afford to buy it until the next September.<p>Third, schools do not have a way to handle in-app purchases (yet?).<p>Finally, you can choose to offer schools a 50% discount on purchases of 20+ copies of your app(and only a 50% discount, no more, no less).<p>Expect this to have a strongly downward price pressure on your app. One school I know only looks for free apps, and finds Apple's Volume Plan too cumbersome to use. My wife's school, K-8 has an app budget of somewhere just south of $1000. Their policy was: each grade level must choose, as a team, one application that costs $1.99 per unit or less. Plus free apps. That's it for the year.<p>In short, if you're looking to hit the classroom, you're probably going to need to stand out in both polish and price. Polish to get noticed above the others, price to get in under budget.<p>Links to check out:<p>Apple's FAQ: http://www.apple.com/education/volume-purchase-program/faq.html<p>Blog post on what it looks like from the educator's point of view: http://learninginhand.com/blog/app-store-volume-purchase-program-explained.html
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manicbovine
I think the main issue is that it's locked down to the iPad.

Hardly any school districts have iPads and there are a slew of "educational
tablets" in the pipeline from manufacturers like Intel.

I'd only build something with Apple's platform with the intention of reaching
a limited consumer market.

(Also, isn't pay-per-device cheaper for a school district than pay-per-
student? Normally, multiple students share one device, or it's one to one.)

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ssylee
How is it different from referring to Khan Academy?

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manicbovine
I'm not really answering your question.. but Khan Academy is not a serious
contender in education. So maybe some teachers use it, but Khan Academy is not
going to disrupt anything in K12 a serious way. They might do something to
consumer educational products, but that's a tiny market.

The public servants who buy educational products must justify their purchase
in terms of educational efficacy and cost. A minimal viable product is low
cost (in dollars), low cost in terms of implementation, and it's designed
around well-validated instructional strategies. Ideally, you have some
educational experts on your side (not some grad student in education, but well
regarded and seasoned educators... who cost a lot).

Although Khan Academy is free in dollars, the educational quality of their
content is all over the map. Educational quality turns out not to matter to
much (e.g. Compass Learning) when it comes to buying decisions. But...

Is Khan Academy teaching things in a way that can be integrated easily into
ordinary classroom instruction? Can Khan Academy point to research that
supports their pedagogical approach? Can they even state their approach?
(aside from, "we're charismatic and free!").

If not, then in the mind of a large purchaser, Khan Academy is not a viable
large-scale alternative. It's an accountability thing.

Education requires deep pockets. Content production is costly enough, but you
also have to pay experts to endorse or help build your product.

The truly disruptive technology will lower those costs.

