Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

More than 20 million students currently use Google Apps, and another 10 million are soon to join, thanks to a deal with Malaysia.

As students and schools are increasingly storing more of their data and documents in clouds of Google’s servers, Backupify recently announced that it has tripled its education user base, with more than 40,000 new education users since January of this year. Schools are using the cloud-based backup service to ensure critical data is archived and safe, even if it would be accidentally deleted or lost on Google’s servers.

Education is a notoriously slow adopter of technology, but Google Apps is growing quickly, if not virally, doubling over the last two years. And the current 20 million users include seven million inside the U.S. alone — led by Oregon that adopted Google Apps in all K-12 classrooms in 2010.

And sometimes, they’re using Backupify because they have to:

“Millions of students and educators around the world are currently using Google Apps to enhance collaborative learning,”  Backupify CEO Rob May said in a statement. “The education sector is ahead of other industries in this regard, but faces unique compliance requirements for data privacy and retention that demand an effective backup strategy.”

To celebrate the recent growth of Google Apps for Education — and their own growth — Backupify put this infographic together:

Image credit: John Koetsier/Venturebeat

Sept. 9 - 10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Millions of Malaysian kids will be writing stories, collecting data, creating presentations, and organizing the future of their education in the cloud — Google’s cloud.

Today, Google announced that Malaysia is adopting Google Apps for 10 million students, teachers, and parents. In addition, the country will be shipping an unspecified number of Chromebooks to schools across the country — all part of a national education blueprint to “place Malaysia firmly on the path to development.”

Malaysia has 10,000 schools, and the government’s plan is to equip them all with 4G Internet access, a virtual learning platform, and at minimum a 10:1 ratio of students to computers.

It’s no secret why they’ve chosen Chromebooks: cost. Google says that Chromebooks “yield three-year cost of ownership savings of $1,135 per device compared to traditional PCs or tablets and require 69% fewer hours to deploy and 92% fewer hours to manage.” And it’s also no secret why Malaysia is adopting Google Apps — for educational use, the apps are entirely, completely free.

That’s of course, in strong contrast to its Google Apps for Business, which costs $50 per user per year. Google had originally made that free for businesses with under 50 users, but it quietly killed free access in December last year.

Deals like this put Google in direct competition with Intel, as well as other computer manufacturers. Intel has a global education initiative which has, for example, put computers in the hands of all middle and high school students in Portugal, and focuses on working with local hardware and software producers to create educational laptops, tablets, and software based on Intel’s references designs.

But having been involved in that initiative in a previous job, I can tell you that costs would be much higher than a Chromebook.

Globally, more than 3,000 schools have now adopted Chromebooks, which generally cost around $300-500, although they will cost significantly less in volume, and Google had a Christmas sale last year, offering Chromebooks at just $99.

photo credit: phalinn via photopin cc

That’s not surprising: we know Apple sources a lot of product — in fact almost all of its products — from Asia, where the company has had significant challenges with suppliers maintaining legal and ethical labor standards, in spite of efforts by CEO Tim Cook and others to improve working conditions.

But it is interesting to see the breakdown. Here’s a partial list of the countries Apple sources product from:

• Mainland China: 331 suppliers
• Japan: 148 suppliers
• United States: 76
• Taiwan: 35 suppliers
• Malaysia: 27
• Singapore: 25 suppliers
• Philippines: 23 suppliers
• Thailand: 17 suppliers
• United Kingdom: 7 suppliers
• Israel: 5 suppliers
• Austria: 4 suppliers

I guess that’s the definition of a multination corporation right there. Overall, with 88 percent of Apple’s supply chain in Asia, only 11 percent of Apple’s suppliers are in its home country of the United States, and even fewer — seven percent — of Apple’s suppliers are in Europe and the Middle East.

Apple has planned to bring some manufacturing back to the United States. Tim Cook announced last last year that Apple would be spending over $100 million to bring some manufacturing back to the U.S., a move that some have derided as a mere publicity stunt.

A bit expensive for a stunt, perhaps.

That manufacturing appears to be for Apple’s desktop lineup of iMacs, a product category that makes up a tiny fraction of its overall $55 billion in sales last quarter. In contrast, iPhone, iPad, and iPod account for over three quarters of Apple’ revenue — 76 percent, in fact.

But it does represent a start. And one that American workers probably would appreciate.

Image credit: Google, ChinaFile

Electronics manufacturer Foxconn, which has gained notoriety as Apple’s key manufacturing partner for mobile devices, is in talks to open a $1 billion facility in Indonesia.

The aim: making “good quality products and make them available in the markets at lower prices,” the company announced Tuesday. It likely doesn’t hurt that Foxconn will have a ready supply of workers willing to assemble cell phones and other consumer electronics for $100 a month.

Why Indonesia? After passing on other SouthEast Asia locations such as Vietnam and Malaysia, Foxconn said it chose Indonesia because of its 6 percent annual growth and an area “sorely in need” of jobs. The company said the plant will create about 1 million jobs, a number  of interest to the Indonesian Ministry of Industry as it enters talks with Foxconn.

The huge new facility is not the first venture into Malaysia by Foxconn. In 2011, the company received the government’s go-ahead to build a plant to make printer cartridges and employ 1,000 workers.

Foxconn already has manufacturing sites in Brazil and China. Although the company has brought the promise of jobs to its host countries, Foxconn seems to always include a bit of controversy. Despite repeated reports of workers committing suicide and other mishaps, Chinese citizens apparently still see Foxconn as a hot employment prospect.

Although Brazil workers producing iPads and other hot electronic brands earn more than their Chinese counterparts, Foxconn quickly found itself in hot water. Earlier this year, Foxconn Brazil workers threatened to strike, claiming they worked without food or water. At another point, Foxconn owner Terry Gou reportedly called workers ‘animals‘ — a bit of indelicate phrasing that prompted a quick apology and the hiring of New York City image managers.

So, it is a bit confusing when Foxconn announces it will “continue our efforts in establishing more manufacturing plants across the globe.” Is that a promise, or a threat?

Photo: ABC’s Foxconn special