Technology companies have a long history of using the education market not just to make money but to build brand awareness among future shoppers. Apple is probably the most well known and successful company to do this. More recently, in the mobile market, AlphaSmart has done a good job of pushing its laptop alternative, Dana, into this area.

Now a software company known for its wireless Web browser solutions is getting into the act by offering special pricing to educational institutions. The company, Bitstream, announced today that the Lake Havasu Unified School District in Arizona will implement the Pocket PC version of its ThunderHawk Web browser into its current wireless initiative.

The school district said it plans to provide wireless Pocket PCs running the ThunderHawk browser to teachers and their classes to investigate student attitudes and motivation regarding their schoolwork when given the opportunity to use Pocket PCs. Teachers will collect data regarding differences in keyboarding skills, homework completion, attendance, and academic attainment between students who use the Pocket PCs and similar classes of students who do not.

The goal of using ThunderHawk is to provide Lake Havasu’s students with mobile access to district approved Web sites. ThunderHawk is known for provinding a user experience similar to browsing on a desktop. That is the main reason the distirct chose Bitstream's solution.

“Lake Havasu can start using the Pocket PCs immediately because Web pages appear on ThunderHawk just as they do on regular PCs students are already familiar with,” said Ernest Tripp, Instructional Technologist at Lake Havasu Unified School District. “We evaluated a couple of wireless Web browsers but chose ThunderHawk because entire full-featured Web pages are displayed quickly, without reformatting the content or cutting the pages into sections.”

BitStream also offers discount pricing for government institutions and qualified non-profit organizations.