While Apple is trying to convince the Government of Quebec to give more importance in its criteria for purchasing computer equipment for schools to the user experience than to the simple price of the components, the French company Unowhy comes to appear in the catalog of the central acquisitions of the government with a tablet which, she hopes, will mow the grass under the foot with the iPad.
The French company Unowhy (pronounced “you know why”) recently released an educational platform called “Sqool”, which includes the hardware and software needed to be used in schools. Despite the English-speaking sound of these names, the device is designed specifically for French-speaking or other environments. In fact, Sqool occupies a more prominent place in schools in France and Belgium these days than Apple does with its own iPad tablet.
In Europe, Unowhy sells a tablet designed and manufactured in-house, but powered by the Android system, and a laptop computer. In Quebec, she obtained approval to offer her tablet to interested schools. Already, a few hundred copies of the device should be used in pilot projects led by some school service centers and some private schools.
Tailor-made for school
Unowhy’s objective in the province is twofold: first, to carve out a place for itself in the educational ecosystem that would enable it to convince investors to help it settle here permanently. Next, open a representative and research and development office in Montreal to locally manufacture its products intended not only for Quebec, but possibly for the entire North American educational market, explains Mathieu Duffar, a Montreal businessman who accompanies the French company in its North American foray.
“It’s difficult, because we are fighting against big international players: Apple, Microsoft, etc., and the current policy in Quebec favors products sold at the lowest price,” he said in an interview with the To have to. “Our rivals only sell tablets, while we also include a whole software suite designed specifically for the school. »
Mr. Duffar is therefore delighted with Apple’s initiative to try to convince Quebec to broaden its selection criteria in the purchase of computer equipment. He obviously qualifies his remarks very quickly, given that he would prefer to see schools give priority to his products which, according to him, better meet the needs of the school sector.
“The primary benefit of our tablets that institutions are seeing is that they can monitor their use in the classroom and also outside of school. This allows the tablet to be reserved for strictly educational use, ”says Mathieu Duffar. “The beauty of Unowhy: it’s a specialist tool, tailor-made for the school. You can’t do that with a normal iPad or Android tablet. »
A bridge for North America
The entry of computer equipment into the school system is not unanimous. Experts worry that this is just a backdoor way for manufacturers to prepare next-generation customers for their gadgets. Others believe that it exacerbates problems already present at home or elsewhere, such as too much time spent in front of screens or the low literacy of young people, who hold a pencil in their hands less and less often.
However, despite everything, we are witnessing these days a rather unprecedented offensive of what is called “educational technologies”, or “EdTech”, according to its nickname in English, in the world in general and in South America. North in particular. Surprisingly, Montreal and Quebec are carving out a prominent place for themselves in the “business” side of this emerging trend.
Already, the company Paper — which offers distance learning support to elementary and secondary students across Canada and North America — has become a pioneer in its niche over the past two years. Paper has more than a thousand representatives, especially in the English-speaking market, and its value exceeds one billion US dollars these days.
In mid-August, Moozoom, another Montreal start-up, announced that it had raised $5 million to also extend its socio-emotional support service to the entire continent. Company founder Jean-Philippe Turgeon confided to the To have to at the time of announcing this financing that its strategy was largely modeled on that of Paper.
Mathieu Duffar sees Unowhy fitting comfortably into this movement by reproducing the same model that allowed Ubisoft to become an essential cog in the Montreal video game industry. Mr. Duffar is also a former Ubisoft Montreal. “It is clear that the installation of Unowhy in North America goes through Quebec first, but then the rest of Canada and the United States are in the crosshairs. »
But above all, Unowhy will have to reveal the price of its devices, ideally before the start of the school year, which is fast approaching. We suspect that they will not be the lowest in the catalog of the Quebec school network. But it’s an important first step. Especially if Quebec allows itself to be convinced that sometimes paying a little more allows you to obtain better results…