Apple Drops MacBook Educational Pricing to $899

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/30/apple-drops-macbook-educational-pricing-to-899/)


http://images.macrumors.com/article/2009/12/30/094620-macbook_edu_899.png

TUAW noted yesterday (http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/29/apple-drops-macbook-to-899-for-students/) that Apple has dropped its regular U.S. educational pricing for the MacBook by $50 to $899. Special pricing apparently available through the University of Maryland's custom Apple Store reportedly even temporarily dropped pricing as low as $728 (http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/29/unibody-macbook-dips-to-728-educational-pricing/) yesterday, although the offer was quickly removed.

The new $899 price covers Apple's standard MacBook offering updated in October (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/10/20/macbook-updated-with-led-display-multi-touch-7-hour-battery/), offering a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, and a 250 GB hard drive.

Article Link: Apple Drops MacBook Educational Pricing to $899 (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/12/30/apple-drops-macbook-educational-pricing-to-899/)

[lifeinhd]

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Too bad the MacBook lacks pretty much any feature I've come to look forward to on a Mac-- where's my FireWire and IR sensor???

[Kilamite]

The MacBook does have an IR sensor. Shame about FireWire though..

But it is obvious who Apple is aiming the MacBook at, though I still think $899 for students is too steep. Should be $699..

[MattG]

...probably sound like a broken record at this point, but it sure sucks that the Edu discount pretty much doesn't do jack since Apple Store charges you tax. Comes out to roughly the same price as ordering it from Amazon, regular price. :rolleyes:

[j_maddison]

The MacBook does have an IR sensor. Shame about FireWire though..

But it is obvious who Apple is aiming the MacBook at, though I still think $899 for students is too steep. Should be $699..

Are you sure it has an IR sensor, I thought that was something they got rid of in the Macbook and was only available on the Macbook pros? Not trying to call you out, interested because a friend is about to purchase one and I could give her my old remote

[phatcat]

I have yet to use firewire or infrared and I imagine >90% of folks don't use it.

Has anyone seen these newer macbooks at Apple store? They look great out of the box. But the high gloss reflective finish scratches very easily and the display models look filthy.

I'd rather get a refurb aluminum macbook.

[flopticalcube]

Are you sure it has an IR sensor, I thought that was something they got rid of in the Macbook and was only available on the Macbook pros? Not trying to call you out, interested because a friend is about to purchase one and I could give her my old remote
Its gone.

iFixit teardown (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Polycarbonate-Unibody/1239/1)

Also gone is an IR port for a remote

[j_maddison]

Its gone.

iFixit teardown (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Polycarbonate-Unibody/1239/1)

Thanks for that

Shame really, as I'd have thought the macbook crowd would be more likely to use the remote over the macbook pro crowd. Shame they're not bundled in free too, as they used to be

[lowbatteries]

...probably sound like a broken record at this point, but it sure sucks that the Edu discount pretty much doesn't do jack since Apple Store charges you tax. Comes out to roughly the same price as ordering it from Amazon, regular price. :rolleyes:

Stores don't "charge" tax, they collect it. You are required to pay the tax on goods you buy online "tax-free" when you file your taxes. Obviously, thought, many people elect not to.

[guzhogi]

I have yet to use firewire or infrared and I imagine >90% of folks don't use it.

I don't know about anyone else, but the people in my school district (which has all Macs except a handful of PCs) use Firewire quite a bit. Whether it's for hard drives or video cameras. Plus, target disk mode is great when trying to recover data from a crashed computer.

As for the IR port, I like to watch TV shows & movies I downloaded in bed. It's great to pause, turn up/down the volume.

[Michaelgtrusa]

Good news.

[macduke]

I saw the $728 price yesterday and called my sister because she is interested in purchasing a Mac. It's too bad that it's gone, but she decided to wait until she has enough saved up for the low end 13" MBP anyway. Plus she wants to get a free iPod Touch this summer.

[cjmillsnun]

The MacBook does have an IR sensor. Shame about FireWire though....

Please enlighten me as to where?

[CrackedButter]

Please enlighten me as to where?

If you read the entire thread before posting you wouldn't need to ask as it has already been refuted.

[Kilamite]

Its gone.

iFixit teardown (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Polycarbonate-Unibody/1239/1)

Eeek, I wasn't aware of that..

Why on earth do they have a IR slot (fair enough it's white) on the front though..? Just to balance symmetry?

[odedia]

728$ is the right price for this machine.

[Chundles]

Eeek, I wasn't aware of that..

Why on earth do they have a IR slot (fair enough it's white) on the front though..? Just to balance symmetry?

It doesn't have an IR port on the front - that's the sleep light.

[stridemat]

Just need to get them too drop the prices of the 27" iMac for students and Im in there.

[Perrumpo]

Just need to get them too drop the prices of the 27" iMac for students and Im in there.

Why would they increase the ($100 in US Store) discount for the 27" iMac? No student short on cash needs a 27" iMac.

[Kilamite]

It doesn't have an IR port on the front - that's the sleep light.

Ah - similar place to the IR slot on the uMBP's. That sucks.. crazy removing that.

[arkmannj]

I have yet to use firewire or infrared and I imagine >90% of folks don't use it.



my experience is drastically different with the FireWire. most of the people I knew in school, and know now use Firewire as first choice. grantid I was a Digital Media major so that may make a bias. But still I have a hard time recommending a machine without FireWire especially for the price of the machines. Target Disk mode alone is worth it for me, has saved my bacon a few times, and I've been able to help many other folks using it.

If nothing else, it's just nice to have options.

[Kilamite]

my experience is drastically different with the FireWire. most of the people I knew in school, and know now use Firewire as first choice. grantid I was a Digital Media major so that may make a bias. But still I have a hard time recommending a machine without FireWire especially for the price of the machines. Target Disk mode alone is worth it for me, has saved my bacon a few times, and I've been able to help many other folks using it.

Target Disk Mode - all portable Macs (with exception of MBA) have user serviceable hard drives. Though it is convenient to just whack up TGM via FireWire.

Completely agree though - leaving FireWire out is terrible. Pro or not, it is a connection port that Apple themselves are the driving force behind.

Though I guess in a few years we'll have forgotten all about it when LightPeak is out..

[johnboi1978]

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Too bad the MacBook lacks pretty much any feature I've come to look forward to on a Mac-- where's my FireWire and IR sensor???

In case you haven't noticed, Firewire is DEAD in the consumer space. It has been for a while and the last time I checked, the white MacBook was CLEARLY a CONSUMER product!!

[arkmannj]

In case you haven't noticed, Firewire is DEAD in the consumer space. It has been for a while and the last time I checked, the white MacBook was CLEARLY a CONSUMER product!!

No need to get testie about it, his uses and desired obviously differ from your own, and perhaps for an above average priced consumer machine he wants some above average consumer specs, particularly one that the consumer level machine used to have. also, the Mac Mini is pointed at the consumer market and has FW800 included (http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html) so I don't think he's to far off in hoping a consumer level machine would include FireWire. I'm not saying you're wrong in your view, just that many of us differ in our opinion on what the machine should have as an available option.

best regards,

[Arcady]

Consumers still have DV camcorders. They connect via FireWire. Some of us don't want to buy a new video camera. FireWire should stay.

Don't care about IR though.

[Applepi]

Got mine at that price last week, not bad overall coming from a Powerbook G4 but I still wish it had firewire.

[brop52]

899 for a MB and printer is a decent deal. Still better during the summer.

[NeuralControl]

It's nice they finally brought the discount back to what it used to be.

[fin1211]

Guys Give This A Break Remember How Much Macbooks Used To Cost???????? This Is A Great Deal!!!!

[dukebound85]

a move in the right direction for sure

799 would be nice!

[notjustjay]

Target Disk Mode - all portable Macs (with exception of MBA) have user serviceable hard drives. Though it is convenient to just whack up TGM via FireWire.

I've found it highly convenient when I need to transfer large files or directories full of many files. A portable hard drive is the best solution, if one is available, but Firewire Target Disk Mode made it easy too.

I used to regularly be in a situation at a summer camp where an older iMac was used to create a (multi-gigabyte) video file and a laptop in another room would present it on a projector. We would boot the iMac into Target Disk Mode and copy the file over to the laptop. Except one day I forgot to bring the appropriate FireWire cable... we had to scramble to find another way to copy the file in time! We didn't have a USB stick big enough, the only portable hard drive we found was formatted NTFS (read-only on a Mac), there was no burner... Finally I found someone with an Ethernet patch cable and we rigged up a little network to copy the file over, just in time. That experience taught me 3 things: (1) Target Disk Mode is really handy! (2) Always double check to make sure you have the right cables! (3) The following year I bought the danged dongle so the iMac could connect directly to the projector... ;)

[MattG]

Stores don't "charge" tax, they collect it. You are required to pay the tax on goods you buy online "tax-free" when you file your taxes. Obviously, thought, many people elect not to.

*sigh*...'collects' , 'charge', whatever -- you know what I meant. I realize the taxes don't ultimately go to Apple.

The fact remains relatively no one files taxes on goods bought online and for most people that remains one of the reasons to purchase online, and unless you're tax-exempt, the edu discount doesn't do much.

Anyway. Woohoo for Apple lowering prices. :)

[ogun7]

Does anyone know if Target Disk Mode over USB really works? I've heard that the Intel machines can do it, but being lazy and on my iPhone, I'd rather ask the hive mind.

[arkmannj]

Does anyone know if Target Disk Mode over USB really works? I've heard that the Intel machines can do it, but being lazy and on my iPhone, I'd rather ask the hive mind.

Not certain if this means anything but when I've used Target Disk Mode on my Intel Macs they all still have the bouncing FireWire symbol so I've assumed FireWire only.

[flopticalcube]

Does anyone know if Target Disk Mode over USB really works? I've heard that the Intel machines can do it, but being lazy and on my iPhone, I'd rather ask the hive mind.
TDM is firewire only. Intel machines can boot off of USB but cannot use it in TDM.

[psychoclown420]

The funny thing is that about 2 days before the price drop, i was on the store website chatting with an apple representative. I asked why apple only has a $50 student discount whilst best-buy has a $100 student discount on macbooks. Needless to say, the rep. got very irate and started knocking best buy for their flaws and why I should buy only from an apple store or apple.com. I highly doubt this discussion had anything to do with it, but it is still a very funny coincidence :D

[camiloken]

This notebook would be great at a base price of $799 maybe even $899.
Maybe apple would reconsider after high 13'' macbook pro sales (well priced) and low macbook sales.

[Kirkafur]

Sour grapes.

Which of you honestly would choose no FireWire over FireWire?

It may not be a big deal that it's absent, but that's not a *good* thing.

[bbnck]

a move in the right direction for sure

799 would be nice!

$899 is a fantastic price, especially at $100 off. In the UK the standard price excluding educational discounting is £816...I think $100 off for standard educational discount is a bargain :).

[PeterQVenkman]

Consumers still have DV camcorders. They connect via FireWire. Some of us don't want to buy a new video camera. FireWire should stay.

Don't care about IR though.

I haven't seen a firewire port on a new consumer camcorder in some time. It seems (IMO only) like firewire was more suited to cameras with tapes that had to essentially play back to get the file onto your machine.

Now with cameras recording to .mp4, you can just drag and drop the thing over USB, or plop a card directly into your mac's media card reader.

I thought I remember that Steve Job's reasoning was that most cameras now support USB. Can't say I agree with leaving it out, but that's the thought process.

[notjustjay]

I haven't seen a firewire port on a new consumer camcorder in some time. It seems (IMO only) like firewire was more suited to cameras with tapes that had to essentially play back to get the file onto your machine.

Now with cameras recording to .mp4, you can just drag and drop the thing over USB, or plop a card directly into your mac's media card reader.

I thought I remember that Steve Job's reasoning was that most cameras now support USB. Can't say I agree with leaving it out, but that's the thought process.

No question there, and for everyone buying a camera today, it's no problem. But I have two miniDV cameras equipped with Firewire, one I bought in 2000 and one I bought in 2004. Both are still going strong with no sign of hardware failure, I have hundreds of hours of memories already on tape, and I intend to keep using them until they die. I have thousands of dollars invested in those cameras and related equipment, and I'm not about to dump it all "because Steve says they're outdated".

Granted I could be more in the "prosumer" category as I do video editing as a hobby. Maybe your average Joe has already broken his $200 miniDV camera and is thus prepared to go out today and buy one of those $200 HD flash cameras to replace it. But I'm not ready to jump to flash memory technology just yet.

[Little Endian]

Firewire is superior by far and those who do not see it are limited to the temporal timeframe in which they had owned technology that had used Firewire.

I for example still own my first and second generation ipods which are firewire only. One I still use for music and the other is used as an external Firewire HD. I also have both a 2.5 and 3.5 inch external disk enclosures which support both firewire 400/800 and USB 2.0 Firewire is faster hands down. I still own a Mini DV Camcorder that I use on a regular basis that is Firewire only.:) I have an external isight webcam that uses firewire only. :) I have used firewire Target disk mode at least a dozen times over the past decade but it has literally saved me weeks worth of time and headache.:)

My 2006 Scion Tc with integrated ipod Head Unit will also only charge up to the fourth generation ipod as it was the last to still retain the Firewire charging pins. I still use my Fourth Generation ipod in this car as a permanent fixture granted this model is USB it is the last model that my head unit can charge without a converter adapter.

In short Firewire is still part of my everyday life and it has been around for about a decade. When Apple developed Firewire Intel was still on it's piddly USB 1.0 interface which they were desperately trying to push. USB 1.0 didn't even compare to Firewire and it took apple to include USB in the first imacs for USB to catch on in the mainstream. (yes ironic) This was back in the day when PCs were still limited to parallel and serial ports!! It took USB 2.0 nearly a half decade after Firewire 400 was introduced before some parity was established. As far as Firewire 800 goes it creams USB 2.0 and it has been around for the past 4 years or and yet we are still waiting for USB 3.0
Its a shame that Apple dropped the ball on its own technology that it developed and pioneered.

[arkmannj]

Firewire is superior by far and those who do not see it are limited to the temporal timeframe in which they had owned technology that had used Firewire.

I for example still own my first and second generation ipods which are firewire only. One I still use for music and the other is used as an external Firewire HD. I also have both a 2.5 and 3.5 inch external disk enclosures which support both firewire 400/800 and USB 2.0 Firewire is faster hands down. I still own a Mini DV Camcorder that I use on a regular basis that is Firewire only.:) I have an external isight webcam that uses firewire only. :) I have used firewire Target disk mode at least a dozen times over the past decade but it has literally saved me weeks worth of time and headache.:)

My 2006 Scion Tc with integrated ipod Head Unit will also only charge up to the fourth generation ipod as it was the last to still retain the Firewire charging pins. I still use my Fourth Generation ipod in this car as a permanent fixture granted this model is USB it is the last model that my head unit can charge without a converter adapter.

In short Firewire is still part of my everyday life and it has been around for about a decade. When Apple developed Firewire Intel was still on it's piddly USB 1.0 interface which they were desperately trying to push. USB 1.0 didn't even compare to Firewire and it took apple to include USB in the first imacs for USB to catch on in the mainstream. (yes ironic) This was back in the day when PCs were still limited to parallel and serial ports!! It took USB 2.0 nearly a half decade after Firewire 400 was introduced before some parity was established. As far as Firewire 800 goes it creams USB 2.0 and it has been around for the past 4 years or and yet we are still waiting for USB 3.0
Its a shame that Apple dropped the ball on its own technology that it developed and pioneered.
Ditto and Amen...

[SeenJeen]

I don't see what the big deal is here... Firewire is on the Pro models. In fact, I'd rather have an extra USB port than a Firewire, and I'm willing to bet that 90% of computer users would agree with me.

[ngenerator]

Ugh! Of course, with my luck I had to go ahead and graduate in December:mad:
I guess I'll just work on saving up for either a MBP or the tablet

[lionheartednyhc]

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Too bad the MacBook lacks pretty much any feature I've come to look forward to on a Mac-- where's my FireWire and IR sensor???

Its not that big of a deal. Just use itunes remote.

-Steve

[OldmanSocks]

On their website their cheapest MacBook has a downgraded processor from what was standard a year or so ago

[Little Endian]

Ugh! Of course, with my luck I had to go ahead and graduate in December:mad:
I guess I'll just work on saving up for either a MBP or the tablet

Go enroll yourself in a Graduate seminar or other continuing education course or just enroll in a course at a community college and voila you are a student again!! Most importantly you will be a someone who qualifies for student edu

sheesh... its not like Apples Edu pricing is a giveaway:rolleyes:Apple's EDU pricing is a joke as you can get most Apple products for less through either amazon or a plethora of third party resellers. This is especially true once you consider tax breaks, rebates, shipping, and other perks. Why anyone buys from apple at full msrp is beyond me. They do so for convenience or for immersing themselves in the sheer pleasure of consumer culture. I would rather save myself the 2-15% Albeit the %10 off on the macbook is quite impressive as you would be hard pressed to find a better deal and if you do you could save maybe $10-$20 on a near $1k purchase. Never forget opportunity cost......

[brop52]

Go enroll yourself in a Graduate seminar or other continuing education course or just enroll in a course at a community college and voila you are a student again!! Most importantly you will be a someone who qualifies for student edu

sheesh... its not like Apples Edu pricing is a giveaway:rolleyes:Apple's EDU pricing is a joke as you can get most Apple products for less through either amazon or a plethora of third party resellers. This is especially true once you consider tax breaks, rebates, shipping, and other perks. Why anyone buys from apple at full msrp is beyond me. They do so for convenience or for immersing themselves in the sheer pleasure of consumer culture. I would rather save myself the 2-15% Albeit the %10 off on the macbook is quite impressive as you would be hard pressed to find a better deal and if you do you could save maybe $10-$20 on a near $1k purchase. Never forget opportunity cost......

It's a lot easier to return the computer to an Apple Store if you buy it from Apple if there is something wrong with the machine.

[Mush Tush]

Ugh! Of course, with my luck I had to go ahead and graduate in December:mad:
I guess I'll just work on saving up for either a MBP or the tablet

I graduated in May and bought my MBP a few months later with the edu discount. Economy sucks and you're still a student. If only a student of life with a connection to a University. ;)

On another note...

I'm bitter that my MBP came with a 160 gb HDD and the lower model comes with a 250GB!!! Doesn't seem fair that the vitals; RAM, processor speed, and the HDD are all identical (barring the HDD)!!

WTF?

[TurnerMan]

Sadly the Acer mini laptop I bought my 9-year-old has more USB ports than my MBP and it's less than 1/2 the cost of the standard Macbook. Barring the OS and hardware control Apple is known for, what defines the Macbook at $800 as a great deal for college students besides TDM?

[Little Endian]

Sadly the Acer mini laptop I bought my 9-year-old has more USB ports than my MBP and it's less than 1/2 the cost of the standard Macbook. Barring the OS and hardware control Apple is known for, what defines the Macbook at $800 as a great deal for college students besides TDM?

More USB ports = better more usable computer.....:rolleyes:
who cares about battery life, GPU performance, portability, reliability, resale value etc.
Most sub $500 PC notebooks with similar screen size and CPU specs either lack the portability, GPU performance or battery life that the Macbook offers.

Netbooks like your Acer Mini laptop can be a good option for some however comparing a netbook with an Intel Atom processor Intel Graphics and piddly little screen to a Core 2 Duo with a dedicated discreete GPU and 13.3 inch higher resolution screen is incomprehensible. Most netbooks are great for casual web browsing, email, and basic document creation. If you need serious work though most netbooks just won't cut it. Also considering how most netbooks I have used choke on even youtube and HD playback, I would say that most of the current Atom powered netbooks will be obsolete in less than two years.

College students design web pages, do wicked research projects, work with massive databases and spreadsheets, deal with heavy multimedia stuff etc etc. Not to even mention those who are in IT related, creative, and technical fields where they have needs that far outreach those that may be served by a netbook. Also have you ever tried staring at a 9-10 inch screen with 1024 by 600 resolution for 2-3 hours? no problem if you want to be wearing coke bottle thick trifocals by the time your 40.