Sources: News Corp's education division, Amplify, is winding down sales of its tablets
Laura Colby / Bloomberg Business :
Context & Ripple Effects
Amplify was News Corp's bet on selling its own tablets directly into classrooms, and this report marks the end of that bet: sources say the education division is winding down sales of the devices. Weeks later, News Corp moved further, reportedly entering advanced talks to sell off Amplify outright while halting tablet production and keeping the software business.
The retreat lands against a market backdrop where Forrester found tablet sales had plateaued, with whatever growth remained concentrated in business rather than consumer or classroom buyers — an awkward demand environment for a hardware-first education play.
First-order effects
- Schools and districts evaluating Amplify's tablet-plus-curriculum bundle lose the hardware option and must source devices elsewhere while Amplify pivots to selling only its software.
- Amplify's sales force and channel partners shift immediately from device deployments to software licensing, changing what the division sells and how it books revenue.
Second-order effects
- Rival education-device makers inherit school customers who were considering Amplify's tablets, tightening competition in a market Forrester already characterized as plateaued.
- With production ceasing, existing installed-base support and parts become a liability to manage during the sale process, pressuring any acquirer to value Amplify on software alone.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, education technology consolidates around software platforms delivered on third-party hardware, and vertically integrated device-plus-content vendors exit or get broken up — as News Corp's own move toward divesting Amplify illustrates.
- Hardware retreats like this push the sector toward procurement built on BYOD-style device independence, weakening the leverage of anyone trying to lock schools into proprietary hardware ecosystems.
The trend: Education technology is separating content and software from hardware ownership, with media conglomerates exiting device businesses they once saw as distribution channels into classrooms.