Apple introduces discounted .Mac for Education

[medea]

Apple today introduced an educational version of its .Mac Web services, as noted by MacCentral. http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0210/01.education.php
.Mac for Education allows education institutions to purchase an unlimited number of one-year subscriptions via purchase order at a special educational price of US$59 per user (minimum of 10 subscriptions). A .Mac for Education membership includes 50MB of online storage with iDisk (compared to 100MB for consumer vesion), a Mac.com IMAP email account with 10MB of storage (compared to 15MB for consumer version), as well as the HomePage Web page builder, Backup software, and Virex virus-detection software.

 

[P-Worm]

Good, I'd like to see Apple reclaiming its spot in the education industry. Now the only question is, how do I fake it that I get the discount too?

P-Worm

 

[Stike]

Originally posted by P-Worm
Good, I'd like to see Apple reclaiming its spot in the education industry. Now the only question is, how do I fake it that I get the discount too?

P-Worm

Could be expensive, P-Worm. Minimum of 10 makes 590 $

Ok, but then you have 500 MB Webspace

Hmmm... must go to the phone... calling some guys

 

[bidge]

It really looks like they've got their prices set. I'm really hoping that next year we don't have to pay $99 for .mac, unless they add some really good and useful features.

 

[Arcady]

What kind of crappy school doesn't already give you web space and email? Why would an .edu person need this .mac junk?

 

[rugby]

I really can't see schools going for this unless they have NOBODY for tech support at their school who knows anything. I have 330+ staff members and I give all of them Webmail/IMAP/POP3 email, FTP, unlimited webpage storage and could give them more like WebDAV and iCal publishing if I wanted to.

My point is this, for $2500, a T1 line and a bit of knowledge this stuff can be done for cheaper over time.

 

[skunk]

Interesting article over at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/27345.html about how Apple is cutting its own throat. Some good points. Check it out.

 

[oldMac]

Dumb article

Originally posted by skunk
Interesting article over at http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/27345.html about how Apple is cutting its own throat. Some good points. Check it out.

This has got to be the dumbest article that I've read recently. Very few companies have been able to create a large enough user base to support the "free services" model that this article articulates (poorly).

Yahoo is the only company that comes to mind (and manages to turn a profit) and they have far more users with much less service.

The fact of the matter is that Apple couldn't afford to dump millions of dollars every quarter to support iTools (servers, bandwidth, programming, maintenance, etc) as a free service.

Argue over the price if you must and complain about the lack of a temporary email forward, but to suggest that Apple is missing a huge marketing database opportunity is just dumb.

Maybe it's just me, but I'll gladly pay to not be added to yet another huge marketing database, receive daily spam and get a face full of banner advertisements. (Not that .Mac could survive on that income, anyway.)

 

[gbojim]

Originally posted by Arcady
What kind of crappy school doesn't already give you web space and email? Why would an .edu person need this .mac junk?

Plenty. I've been working with quite a few schools over the past year or so that are struggling with exactly this problem. It takes about 1 server and 1 technician to support 1000 users with these services. Problem is getting the money to hire the tech and buy the server. $59k is pretty cheap for what is being offered.

 

[rugby]

$59K?!?!? Wow, where are you at?

Originally posted by gbojim


Plenty. I've been working with quite a few schools over the past year or so that are struggling with exactly this problem. It takes about 1 server and 1 technician to support 1000 users with these services. Problem is getting the money to hire the tech and buy the server. $59k is pretty cheap for what is being offered.

 

[medea]

I'm sure that they are targeting schools and the faculty, not schools and the students neccessarily. Sounds like a good deal for the elementary, middle and highschools.

 

[macmax]

ues , but they could have different rates, for example:
i only need the email.
why not have a different price for us with three or four offers so that you could get the one u r interested in?

 

[skunk]

Be Patient...

I think that .mac and its associated services have just arrived a little early, as is the case with a lot of Apple stuff (USB, CD drives only, etc), before many developers have really got a handle on the possibilities. By this time next year, I predict that .mac will be integrated into a lot of apps, with additional services and capabilities, I've got $99 that says it's so!!

 

[MacAficionado]

I got it free!

Hey I ordered my DP 867 the other day and they gave me a year of .Mac for free

How cool is that?

Anyway this is my first Mac, I can't wait 'till it gets here.

 

[gbojim]

Originally posted by rugby
$59K?!?!? Wow, where are you at?

Southern Ontario, NY and PA.