All 650 UK House Of Commons Members To Get An iPad Air 2

Apple’s iPad Air 2 is getting its own ‘Oprah moment’ in the UK today, as all 650 Members of Parliament in the UK House of Commons members are getting the devices following the general election coming up in May. Already, about 209 of the governing body’s members have an iPad, but the Apple tablet will be standard issue once this new initiative goes live.

The standard model used will be the 16GB Wi-Fi plus cellular version, and there’s no word yet on whether they’ll get to pick their own color, according to The Telegraph. What is clear is that with iPads, they meet the requirements for a “secure, SIM-enabled tablet with good life expectancy and capable of supporting future upgrades,” as phrased by House of Commons Commission Chairman John Thurso in an interview with the paper.

Using the existing 209 iPads, the UK government is already saving around $4.5 million in printing costs, so expect that to go up post-election shift. Use of iPads in government is not a strictly British maneuver, either; the Dutch and New Zealander governing bodies are also iPad fans, for instance.

Apple’s decision to partner with IBM probably helps them to some extent with government customers, but increased adoption likely has more to do with the slow pace of institutional change finally catching up with available tech.

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