Apple’s main competition in the education market is, of course, Google’s Chromebooks. In a recent interview with CNET, Apple’s SVP and Chief of Marketing Phil Schiller talked a little bit about Chromebooks, and it is not pretty.

When asked about Chromebooks popularity in the education market as compared to Apple’s MacBooks, Schiller claimed that the iPad is the “ultimate tool” for a child to learn on. He then went on to say how the students who are more engaged in school tend to get better results than those who aren’t engaged in classrooms.

“You need to have these cutting-edge learning tools to help kids really achieve their best results,” said Schiller.

Schiller then went on to claim that Chromebooks don’t offer cutting-edge learning tools, and the only reason they have gotten into the classroom is because they are “cheap testing tools”. He then made a really bold claim, stating that kids with Chromebooks aren’t going to succeed, and they are only optimal for testing kids.

And frankly, that is incredibly absurd. Schiller is essentially saying that schools who can’t afford to buy iPads are going to have less engaged kids, and thus, poorer results. That is obviously not the case and considering the fact that most schools can barely afford to purchase supplies for kids, it’s insensitive to for a senior Apple executive to make such a claim.

Following his interview with CNET, there’s been a lot of criticism about Schiller’s claims. Schiller then took to Twitter to clarify his statements, and it doesn’t really make his original statements any better:

Every child has the ability to succeed — helping them to do that has always been our mission. In the full conversation with CNET, we discussed giving kids and teachers the content, curriculum and tools they need to learn, explore and grow. Not just to take a test.

— Philip Schiller (@pschiller) November 13, 2019

Considering that today was supposed to be about Apple’s brand new MacBook Pro, Schiller has directed a significant amount of attention away from that product announcement.

Tagged with Apple, Phil Schiller