Apple Launches 2011 Back to School Promotion

[BrumGB]

Hey guys quick question what is the warranty that you get if I do not select the phone support uplift.. I've talked to an apple representative and she said I just get phone support extra..

Is this true ? If I have any problems I will be going to the apple store rather than phoning anyway ? what would I get to proove that I am a student and that I have the 3 years technical support ?

are there any hidden extras of getting the "apple care" uplift ?

Thankyou

 

[OllyW]

Am i the only one who thinks this is paltry? Only £65 and you can't even use it towards hardware. You have to go to one of the stores and feed Apple an extra 30%

You are still getting something extra for nothing.

Think yourself lucky, us non-students have to pay full price and don't get a free £65 card.

 

[Ulf1103]

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It's better then nothing, but

It's less then 1/2 of what you get with previous BTS promotions (free iPod touch 8 gb = $ 229)
It's 44% then what you got last year.

I'm from Belgium.
Now 100$ = 70€
so an 8 gb iPod touch should cost 160€.
Unfortunately it isn't it's 239€
So we get 29% of what you get last year.

That's not funny.
We lose twice here

 

[bennettave]

Just ordered mine. A 27" iMac with SSD + 1TB HDD - I'm finally replacing my 1GHz TiBook. Man...that was a good machine!

 

[HungryWolf]

I'm disappointed but hey, that's life.

I'll be ordering from Amazon. $1140 for the entry level iMac. $100 gift card would cost me $100 in taxes if I order from the Apple Store. Kills the deal for me.

I'd suggest that anyone not making modifications to their Mac look into it as well. Less hassle for no additional benefit.

 

[blackburn]

You are still getting something extra for nothing.

Think yourself lucky, us non-students have to pay full price and don't get a free £65 card.

Get someone that can get the discount and ask them to buy it for you

 

[iStudentUK]

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Hey guys quick question what is the warranty that you get if I do not select the phone support uplift.. I've talked to an apple representative and she said I just get phone support extra..

Is this true ? If I have any problems I will be going to the apple store rather than phoning anyway ? what would I get to proove that I am a student and that I have the 3 years technical support ?

are there any hidden extras of getting the "apple care" uplift ?

Thankyou

UK (Note that! UK ONLY!) uni students get a 3 year warranty and 1 year phone supper for free if they buy online or on the phone. But NOT if they buy in store.

The uplift gives you AppleCare, which basically is just upping the free warranty to include 3 years phone support. There is some question of whether the free warranty is international or transferrable- it isn't quite clear.

You can still phone Apple to arrange collection, you don't have to go in store. They just wont give you software help on the phone. You don't need student ID if there is an issue. You only have to be a student when you buy the Mac, when you graduate the warranty is still valid. All Apple will do is check the serial number if there is a problem.

Details here- https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1103022/

 

[coolspot18]

New iMac arrived Tuesday the 15th, you think I can still qualify for BTS by calling in?

Thanks.

 

[jygsawpuzzle]

glad I saved my money and bought a 2011 13 inch MBP refurb instead. I'd rather use the 100 dollars on something else and not restrict myself to Apple related software.

 

[kenypowa]

Can't believe no one has pointed out that this might mean that they won't be launching new iPods this year. Isn't the BTS promotion usually used to clear out old stock?

Thats a good point. New iPod Touch is usually released 3 months after the new iPhone comes out. If iPhone 4S is out in Sept or Oct, then very likely we won't see a new iPod Touch in 2011.

 

[alent1234]

Can't believe no one has pointed out that this might mean that they won't be launching new iPods this year. Isn't the BTS promotion usually used to clear out old stock?

most likely not

studies have shown that most people spend more than the value of the gift card so instead of giving you a discounted ipod apple will probably make more money overall as people buy books and software. with the new video editing tools coming out soon, i don't think its a coincidence

 

[Markisss88]

Meh say what you want it still sux for the people who were waiting for a good back to school deal. But hey i guess something is better than nothing.

 

[Rudy69]

Kinda lame that they cut the discount by about 50% :/

 

[h2oskier09]

I have to say that I'm quite disappointed by Apple's decision to change from the iPod Touch to the Gift Card. The base model iPod was the college student's free entry into the world of iOS, and clearly leads to purchase of other iOS product down the road (iPhone, iPad). I can safely say that when I purchased my MBP two years ago and received the free iPod Touch, it greatly influenced my decision to purchase the iPhone 4. Also, by distributing free iPod Touches you are placing two devices into the hands of the college student that require apps rather than one. The gift card only means that you're selling apps that would have been purchased anyway, had an iPod been given away. Unfortunately, I think that the loss in locking college students into iOS devices will prove to be much greater loss in the long run than the loss of an additional $120 per student Mac purchase from June to September. They also forget that this promo doesn't apply to everyone, students are a PERCENTAGE of the market, and the offer is only good for three months. And now, Microsoft (who pretty much copied the iPod promo with their XBox) now looks like even more bang for the buck to students who may have been considering their first Mac purchase. All in all, a poor business decision for Apple. I think this is a case where the iPod giveaway was a means of investing into future business with your consumers, rather than locking in $100 of business with a gift card.

 

[theman123]

The main reason this sucks is because of what Microsoft is doing. They give away a free gaming system, while we get a gift card. Not even an Apple gift card, an App Store gift card.

Can we still get the printer?

 

[Sirmausalot]

The printer is actually a crap deal too as the printer manufacturers make their money off the ink. After printing a few pages, you're in for 50-75 worth of ink. And gift cards will go largely to Apple apps. Shame it's not the iPod which I've gotten for the past 3 computers.

 

[NStocks]

The main reason this sucks is because of what Microsoft is doing. They give away a free gaming system, while we get a gift card. Not even an Apple gift card, an App Store gift card.

Can we still get the printer?

US students can, UK student dcannot Kinda unfair really. Again, they were running it in the UK last year with the BTS promotion.

At least us UK students get more discount . I'm not complaining about it really. Should get £45 on eBay for the voucher.

 

[maflynn]

I think I echo many of the other posters. I'm just disappointed in apple with the gift card.

I mean its not about competing against the Xbox/PC deal but in contrast to that it looks incredibly cheap. To me its like apple is resting on its laurels and thinking that Macs now sells themselves. True Mac sales have been going up but that doesn't mean they should start cheaping out.

 

[FloatingBones]

Use the $100 to roll your own Office suite

Since MS has never put MS Office or the individual apps in the MAS, this could have a significant impact on Office sales.

IMHO, I think that Scrivener is a far better tool for researching and writing school papers than Word. Apple's Numbers should fill the bill for spreadsheet crunching. For presentations, Keynote is superior to Powerpoint. Those three tools can be purchased on the $100 in the BTS program.

 

[Kirsten Hollerd]

Meh say what you want it still sux for the people who were waiting for a good back to school deal. But hey i guess something is better than nothing.

^this.

Why are so many people accusing Apple of "ripping them off" with this promo? I'm getting $100 off my 13" MBP, $66 off AppleCare, a free $100 HP wireless printer and a free $100 App Store GC (going to grab Pages and Numbers) and this is somehow an injustice of some sort...?

 

[CrzyCanuck72]

I have to say that I'm quite disappointed by Apple's decision to change from the iPod Touch to the Gift Card. The base model iPod was the college student's free entry into the world of iOS, and clearly leads to purchase of other iOS product down the road (iPhone, iPad). I can safely say that when I purchased my MBP two years ago and received the free iPod Touch, it greatly influenced my decision to purchase the iPhone 4. Also, by distributing free iPod Touches you are placing two devices into the hands of the college student that require apps rather than one. The gift card only means that you're selling apps that would have been purchased anyway, had an iPod been given away. Unfortunately, I think that the loss in locking college students into iOS devices will prove to be much greater loss in the long run than the loss of an additional $120 per student Mac purchase from June to September. They also forget that this promo doesn't apply to everyone, students are a PERCENTAGE of the market, and the offer is only good for three months. And now, Microsoft (who pretty much copied the iPod promo with their XBox) now looks like even more bang for the buck to students who may have been considering their first Mac purchase. All in all, a poor business decision for Apple. I think this is a case where the iPod giveaway was a means of investing into future business with your consumers, rather than locking in $100 of business with a gift card.

+1 - good analysis. What little Apple lost on giving out free iPod Touches, they made up in continuous app and music sales for those devices. I don't think any students are going to get "hooked" on the Mac App store through this $100 gift card. They'll spend their $100 then go right back to either not buying software at all, or pirating the software they really need. There's no room for future growth. Bad move all around.

 

[FloatingBones]

Hmm, I know this is stating the obvious, but actually this is only costing Apple $70, since they get $30 profit on the $100 spent.

All retailers mark up what they sell. The difference with the MAS is that the markup is far more transparent than most retail operations. In essence, you're complaining about the transparency of the MAS operation.

BTW: there are definitely expenses in retailing MAS software: marketing, customer support, computers to host the service, bandwidth to deliver software, credit card fees, etc. Apple does its best to minimize those costs, but they are most certainly not zero.

 

[jonnysods]

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No floods of iPods on the marketplace then?

Trying to push everyone into getting used to interacting with the app store. Very clever.

No regrets on buying my comp in late May now.

 

[MrXiro]

I'm glad I bought my last gen MBA for 200 bucks off from Amazon. Saved nearly $300 since there was no tax and CA recycle fee tacked on.

I was kind of banging my head about not getting the free iPod... but this new BTS offer cinches my decision. I came out with the better deal.

 

[ESPN]

^this.

Why are so many people accusing Apple of "ripping them off" with this promo? I'm getting $100 off my 13" MBP, $66 off AppleCare, a free $100 HP wireless printer and a free $100 App Store GC (going to grab Pages and Numbers) and this is somehow an injustice of some sort...?

Macs are expensive so it is a good deal when in previous years, student discount and selling of the (complementary)ipod touch can reduce the cost.

This year with Apple changing their ipod touch giveaway to a giftcard is already a bad deal. And Windows 7 computers get an Xbox for 699$ or 799$ while macs run northwards of 1000$.

This is a bad gamble by Apple, it was the ipod touches that drove their mac sales in previous years,but i cansee that number sharply declining.


For those of you who says Apple doesn't have to provide anything as a gift.

They don't but their offer will be less attractive and their sales would drop.