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Apple Said to Launch 2022 Back to School Promotion on Friday, Might Offer Gift Cards Instead of Free AirPods

Realityck said:
I liked when they gave free AirPods, then you could always opt to spend a bit more on better AirPod Pros. There isn't that much at the store these days unless you like cases or cables.
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That’s true, but maybe an Apple Pencil if you don’t have one, or u can use it to upgrade ur RAM or SSD
 
sw1tcher said:
It might seem like they're starting Back to School promo earlier and earlier each year to you, but they're not. At least compared to 2010 and prior.
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Former Apple Education exec here...

The thinking behind the May/June BTS start dates in the past was to capture new college-bound high school grads receiving a new system as a graduation present, and to also capture graduating college seniors using their last bit of college discount eligibility.

I can't comment on the slide into late June and July in recent years. One challenge we always faced in US EDU was making a national program work for a combined BTS season that ranged from college graduations starting in late April all the way until late college starts in late September. The current dates probably spring from a desire to shorten the overall program period, while still capturing the largest possible chunk of the market.

One misconception was that the BTS was a program designed to "blow out" aging product. That never happened during my era, and I am sure that this is still the case. Apple manages their supply chain and inventory well enough that this was never a consideration, as we simply never had old product lying about.

What was a challenge was how to work new products announced during the program period into the promotion. Sometimes new low-margin products had to be excluded from the promo (Mac mini, usually).
 
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sw1tcher said:
It might seem like they're starting Back to School promo earlier and earlier each year to you, but they're not. At least compared to 2010 and prior.

Past promo start dates.

2022 = June 24???
2021 = June 17
2020 = June 15
2019 = July 9
2018 = July 12
2017 = July 12
2016 = June 2
2015 = July 23
2014 = July 1
2013 = July 2
2012 = June 11
2011 = June 16
2010 = May 25
2009 = May 27
2008 = June 3
2007 = June 5
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I think it would make sense to launch it with the MacBook Air M2.
 
nutmac said:
In the past is any indication, the gift card won't have the same value as AirPods. It will most likely be $100 for Mac and $50 for iPad.
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For my first Mac, in 2004, I got the educational discount, plus $300 off an iPod (which was $329, so, $29 iPod), and a basically free printer (I think it was $100 off any printer and they had a decent $99 one). Glad they're still doing... something, at least.
 
M1 Pro 16 inch ordered at education store on June 3, to be delivered by July 27-august 12, here in Mexico the back to school promotion will be available by mid july, before I get my MBP delivered.

Do you think I’ll be candidate for the offer? 🤨

Tecnically I’m buying/receiving my computer in the promotion dates, what do you think?
 
This could be great. I can buy a machine on my wife's back to school account, then use the gift card to buy mine. Hopefully they do instant credit.
 
TexStones said:
One misconception was that the BTS was a program designed to "blow out" aging product. That never happened during my era, and I am sure that this is still the case. Apple manages their supply chain and inventory well enough that this was never a consideration, as we simply never had old product lying about.
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I remember doing a case study on inventory turnover and remember calculating Apple's was only 6.-something days. I'm not sure how accurate that is to reality, but I was astounded how low it was, especially when compared to industry competitors.

For those unfamiliar, that would mean Apple holds less than a week's worth of inventory at any given point, on average.
 
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JPack said:
In previous years, you could choose to have your MacBook delivered and free AirPods picked up at the Store. But if you chose to not pick up your AirPods, you would get an automatic full refund of $159. The M1 MBA would end up being $740.
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That’s sketch af. Wow.
 
Damn, I really wanted to upgrade to the pros for 100 bucks. Do you think we'll be able to use the gift card on applecare+ for the Mac we buy?
 
Sbstndalton said:
Instead of paying money to upgrade the ssd, use the gift card.
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You don't come into possession of the gift card until you have completed the transaction wherein you purchased the Mac with whatever amount of storage you decided upon. You can't apply it against the transaction, because you don't own the gift card until the transaction completes.
 
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CarlJ said:
You don't come into possession of the gift card until you have completed the transaction wherein you purchased the Mac with whatever amount of storage you decided upon. You can't apply it against the transaction, because you don't own the gift card until the transaction completes.
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So if I buy an iPad, I would need to buy the Apple Pencil in separate transaction in order to use the gift card?
 
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