Apple (AAPL)’s vice president of education John Couch on Friday met with Turkish President Abdullah Gül to discuss the country’s massive iPad initiative, which could put more than 15 million tablets in the hands of Turkey’s young students at an estimated cost of around $4.5 billion.
Apple has reportedly been pushing for the contract, but a deal has yet to be reached as the negotiations for millions of iPads to turkish schools at a reasonable price are still in progress.
Among other topics discussed during the meeting was that of Apple products being sold on the Turkish market several months after they are introduced in other countries. According to a report from ‘Today’s Zaman‘, Mr. Gül, who closely follows technological developments, asked the Apple officials to give up, as he put it, this “second-class” treatment practice Turkey receives from Cupertino which leads to dissatisfaction among Turks. Couch reportedly said he would convey Gül’s message to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Back in May 2012, Gül visited the headquarters of Apple, Google (GOOG), Facebook (FB) and Microsoft (MSFT) in an extended visit to California’s Silicon Valley. During that visit, Mr. Gül also met with Apple CEO Tim cook.
Also addressed in the meeting was an issue with the layout of the older Turkish “F-keyboard” on iOS devices resulting in several keys being spotted in the wrong positions. Couch said Apple has begun work on adding Turkish and the “F-keyboard” to their products.
There are no other immediate details about the meeting.
Here’s the official photo of the meeting through the President’s PR office. Mr. Gül can be seen at the far left in the photo below. Couch is at the far right.
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