After over two years, Google quietly ends the Google Play for Education program

CRN reported over the weekend that Google is quietly shuttering its Google Play for Education program, and now we have confirmation of the plans via a statement made to TechCrunch. According to this statement, Google will no longer be selling Google Play for Education licenses effective March 31st of this year. That said, existing customers should not be seeing an interruption of services…

As of March 14 or later, Google will no longer sell Google Play for Education licenses. We’re committed to providing schools with the best-in-class tools for the classroom, including Chromebooks, which are the #1 selling device in US K-12 education, and a strong and growing ecosystem of educational apps. We’ll continue to support our Google Play for Education customers and the devices that they have purchased.

This isn’t exactly a surprising move considering that Google has really shifted its education focus to the Chromebook. Play for Education was announced in 2013, a time when it was thought that the iPad would enter and conquer the education market (which it did to some degree), and it seems the program was just a “me too” effort from Google. Not exactly surprising that it didn’t quite take off.