Tim Cook said to be working on $4 billion iPad deal with Turkish president

four iPad mini retina display

Tim Cook is reportedly scheduled to travel to Turkey next year for the opening of Apple’s first retail store in the country. The store is located in the city of Istanbul, in the Zorlu Center, and is expected to open on February 4, 2014.

But according to a new report, that won’t be Cook’s only order of business for the visit. The CEO is also believed to be meeting with President Abdullah Gül to discuss a potential education iPad deal worth between $3 and $4 billion…

AppleInsider has translated the story from Turkish site emlakkulisi.com:

“Cook will be in Turkey next year to meet with President Abdullah Gül over the country’s so-called “FATIH Project,” which seeks to replace blackboards and textbooks with modern computing devices. In May, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Apple headquarters to inspect the tech giant’s latest technological advancements before putting out a bid for his FATIH project.

Apple has been trying to negotiate this deal with the country for some time now. President Gül met with the company’s VP for education John Couch and other executives in Cupertino last year, and then again earlier this year in Turkey.

Apple execs meeting with Turkish presidentphoto from meeting earlier this year via the president’s PR office

Should the deal go through, the program’s initial phase calls for the purchase of 10.6 million tablets, followed by a second purchase of between 2 and 2.5 million iPads. In total, the entire initiative is scheduled to roll out over a four-year period.