Apple Overhauls iPad Education Program to Ease App Distribution

With rumors gaining steam that Apple (AAPL) plans to release a 12.9-inch, large screen iPad Pro in the second half of 2015 for the enterprise market, the vendor also has set the stage to bump up education sales of its standard model tablets.

Apple plans to change how school districts deploy iPads for classroom use, intending to eliminate some of the hurdles that have beset administrators from adopting the platform in the past, according to a MacRumors report. Most of the changes, detailed in an email MacRumors obtained, involve new rules surrounding the use of an Apple ID.

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According to MacRumors, Apple’s email read as follows:

“To simplify large deployments, including one-to-one and shared use, we want to make app distribution even easier. Today, Apple IDs are required in order to deliver apps and books to students. We are working to change this in the fall by allowing schools to assign and distribute apps to a device without an Apple ID. As currently planned, this will greatly reduce the number of steps needed to setup a device. This change should eliminate the need to create generic Apple IDs solely for the purposes of getting content onto iPad. Schools will also have the option to prevent students from making personal purchases without approval.”

Specifically, Apple aims to make app distribution for the iPad easier by no longer requiring an Apple ID to load apps, modifying the Apple ID for Students program and consolidating a number of deployment programs in one overall plan, the report said.

Beginning this coming fall, Apple wants to streamline the process for schools to set up an iPad for student use by allowing administrators to assign and distribute apps to a device without an Apple ID. Apple also will stop requiring schools to create generic Apple IDs to load content onto an iPad but grant them the option to block students from purchasing apps without prior approval, the report said.

In addition, Apple will allow schools for students younger than 13 to create and manage Apple IDs to gain access to Apple’s iCloud, and to reset passwords.