This should be good news for Apple: as another school year approaches, the demand for electronics in the classroom is high.

A new survey from CouponCabin.com reports that 42%of parents plan to buy new electronic gadgets — such as laptops, tablets, cellphones and e-readers — for their children for the upcoming school year. In addition, nearly half (49%) of parents said their children’s school requires them to purchase certain electronic gadgets for learning purposes.

When asked which of the following electronic gadgets, if any, their children’s school requires them to purchase, parents with school-age children said: computer (24%), mobile phone (20%), tablet (19%), e-reader (9%), other (5%) and none (51%). However, with parents feeling the pressure to buy electronic gadgets for school use, 75% said they are at least somewhat overwhelmed with the cost of buying tech devices for their children.

With 78% of adults planning to spend $500 or less per child on their back-to-school shopping, fitting these electronic devices in the budget will be a challenge.
Many parents will schedule their back-to-school shopping to save as much money as possible. More than half (55%) of those who did any back-to-school shopping last year plan to do their shopping earlier this year. Thirty-seven percent of parents who plan to do back-to-school shopping this year would consider waiting until after the school year starts to save money. 

When asked what their total budget is per child, U.S. adults who plan to do back-to-school shopping this year said the following: US$100 or less (27%); $101- $200 (26%); $201 – $500 (25%), and more than $500 (7%).

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of CouponCabin from July 13-17, among 2,037 U.S. adults ages 18 and older.