Turkish Prime Minister Visits Apple Ahead of Major Tablet Purchase

Anatolia News Agency reports that Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Apple yesterday as part of a tour of Silicon Valley companies ahead of the country's move to purchase 10.6 million tablets for its schoolchildren. Erdoğan also visited Microsoft's Bay Area outpost and Google during his trip.

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Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left) visits Apple
The meeting at Apple was just the latest of numerous interactions between Apple executives and Turkish government officials as Apple seeks to win the massive tablet contract. A number of Apple executives including vice president for education John Couch traveled to Turkey back in February to meet with Turkish president Abdullah Gül, while Gül had visited Apple in May 2012.

Ahead of the education tablet bid, Apple is in the midst of a significant push into the Turkish market, having launched the iTunes Store for music and movies there last December and begun hiring for future retail stores in the country.

(Thanks, Paul!)

Top Rated Comments

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Shaun, UK

81 months ago

big deal

bit insulting

Rating: 18 Votes

macs4nw

81 months ago

big deal

A possible big deal, indeed. (Your sarcasm duly noted.)

Just think of the overall ecosystem benefits. If APPLE can be successful with this 'Education Initiative', that would be sensational, not only for the immediate economic windfall to the company, but also as an example to education ministries in other countries, who would no doubt keep a close eye on this 'experiment', and who might follow suit.

If they can convince the Turkish government to go with them, rather than MICROSOFT or GOOGLE, and secure this 'contract', the overall long term benefits of this to APPLE, would be almost incalculable! A brilliant move!

Rating: 10 Votes

E.Lizardo

81 months ago

bit insulting

bit oversensitive

Rating: 8 Votes

KieranDotW

81 months ago

big deal

deal (n): to trade or do business (followed by with or in): eg. to deal with a firm; to deal in used cars

Correct. If Turkey buys 10.6 million iPads from Apple, I suppose you could call that a big deal.

Rating: 7 Votes

jrsower

81 months ago

so i'm guessing that students will also get a free iJihad app on their ipads?:cool:

Really living up to the second part of your screen name...

Rating: 7 Votes

Yamcha

81 months ago

Good stuff, I think I would've done better in school with tablets. I've seen some of the learning applications, and they are lots of fun to use, and educational at the same time..

Rating: 6 Votes

Internaut

81 months ago

big deal

Well, it probably is a big deal for Turkey. They probably still have the fastest growing economy in the region (both Europe and the Middle East, bearing in mind they straddle both) and a fast growing high tech industry. Turkish businesses we used to make fun of for being cheap (just like Lucky Goldstar, back in the day) are increasingly well respected. It makes sense that the Turks see a strategic need to update and boost their education.

Rating: 5 Votes