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White MacBook Not Dead Yet: Still Available for Educational Institutions

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MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,627
31,013



Contrary to initial impressions, the white MacBook has not been discontinued entirely, as Apple has announced to resellers that it will continue making it available only to educational institutions. Note that this is for institutional purchases only and the MacBook will not be available to individuals purchasing through Apple's education channels.
MacBook (MC516) is now Available for Education Institutions Only. All backlog for channel and non direct education institution customers should be cancelled effective today July 20th.

The MacBook (MC516) will be available to all channel partners via the Apple On-line Reseller stores and is now intended to be sold out only to education institutions.
Click to expand...
This is certainly not the first time that Apple has maintained a product specifically for educational institutions, as the company has long offered products such as special low-end iMac models to its institutional customers.

macbook_2010.jpg



The MacBook has been popular with educational institutions for its low price and solid plastic construction able to stand up to the rigors of day-to-day classroom use. Consequently, it makes sense for Apple to continue offering the model to those select customers. The move also explains yesterdays rumor of Apple "phasing out" the MacBook with production set to continue at least into next month as Apple repositions the machine for the much smaller educational institution market.

Article Link: White MacBook Not Dead Yet: Still Available for Educational Institutions
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/20/white-macbook-not-dead-yet-still-available-for-educational-institutions/
D

dustinsc

macrumors regular
Nov 21, 2009
230
52
That's good to hear. Before they kill it off entirely, they need a better budget replacement. The 11" Air does not count.
 
W

winston1236

macrumors 68000
Dec 13, 2010
1,902
319
Yea they are selling of the rest of the stock, hopefully they will introduce an entirely new replacement the air is too weak to compare
 
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tommy060289

macrumors regular
Jun 20, 2011
146
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'solid plastic construction'

Is this a MacBook I don't know about? My 2008 MB was a brittle piece of junk! Long life the aluminium unibody!
 
T

Torrijos

macrumors 6502
Jan 10, 2006
384
24
Just like they did with the e-Macs...

They'll go at the end of the education purchase window.
 
wordoflife

wordoflife

macrumors 604
Jul 6, 2009
7,564
37
I think that was a bad move. The MacBook has a few advantages over the Air for the same price.
 
justinfreid

justinfreid

macrumors 6502a
Nov 24, 2009
501
23
NEW Jersey / USA
Sort of glad to see it go, frankly. The vestigial white plastic shell has looked out of place in the Apple lineup for some time.

I think it makes sense to keep it for educational use only, and largely out of sight.
 
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mungo2k

macrumors regular
Mar 11, 2011
118
175
Bizarrely, they're selling it at an inflated price (£931 in the UK compared to £859 for the basic MacBook Pro). I can't think of a reason why anyone who was concentrating would buy one of these anymore.

But then, the educational store is still selling ancient 2.0GHz C2D 20" iMacs for some reason too, so I guess some people just click without thinking...
 
ziggyonice

ziggyonice

macrumors 68020
Mar 12, 2006
2,385
1
Rural America
tommy060289 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_4 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8K2 Safari/6533.18.5)

'solid plastic construction'

Is this a MacBook I don't know about? My 2008 MB was a brittle piece of junk! Long life the aluminium unibody!
Click to expand...

Apparently you missed the MacBook's redesign when it became unibody plastic. Much better than the original design (which had the infamous 'cracking' issue).
 
theelysium

theelysium

Suspended
Nov 18, 2008
562
360
Thank God! I am a tech in a very large school district. The white MacBook is the best fit for a portable computer. I was freaked when I read they were going to discontinue it.


They should just call it the eBook!
 
L

LoadStar

macrumors member
Mar 15, 2011
63
92
rdowns said:
Maybe my memory is faulty but I remember the eMac being educational only and Apple releasing it to consumers after complaints. Am I nuts?
Click to expand...

The eMac started out as an education only. Wide customer demand then prompted them to sell to consumers. Near the end, it became education only again.

Apple has done something similar with the iMac on a regular basis; they continued to sell a basic model of the white iMac to education, while the rest of the product line went aluminum.
 
Doctor Q

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,821
7,594
Los Angeles
We still have eMacs at school but it worries me when the school buys Macs that are obsolete through other channels. Macs last a long time so I'm concerned about support down the road, for example if we need replacement parts.
 
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AznTakumi

macrumors regular
Apr 4, 2011
192
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How would I buy one?
 
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