Followers of Apple news are used to hearing about the collaboration between Maine state schools and Apple Computer. Now Google is joining the fun, donating SketchUp Pro and Google Earth for pre-installation on the 36,000 Apple laptops that students will receive in the fall, as well to teachers. Here is the announcement on the official Google blog.

The best news: “Government agencies that would like to follow Maine’s lead are welcome to drop us a line at education@sketchup.com.”

Note: Those laptops will almost certainly be the MacBooks announced yesterday, rather than the discontinued iBooks mentioned in the RFP. And it’s not clear from the announcement whether it’s Google Earth or Google Earth Plus/Pro that is being installed — perhaps because the Mac version isn’t out yet.

[Update 8:50 UTC: One more thought: Feature-wise, there isn’t much that a schoolkid could benefit from in SketchUp Pro that is missing in SketchUp free (other than that it doesn’t exist yet for the Mac). The main reason I can think of for donating SketchUp Pro is the EULA of the free version, which might restrict use on school-owned laptops. In any case, AEC and CAD professionals should expect an onlsaught of designers from Maine in a decade or so:-)]