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September 19, 2006

stores

Whither the iPod education discount?

Posted Sep. 19, ’06, 9:25 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Apple » Stores

Apple's Store for EducationDespite all the additions made to the iPod line at last week’s Showtime event, there were some things that fell by the wayside. One of the major casualties appears to have been the educational discount on iPods.

I used to work at a fairly well-known educational institution in Cambridge, and I often took advantage of the prices available to education staff. You can save up to a few hundred bucks on hardware and a decent amount on software and accessories too. In the past you’d also been able to save around 10% on a new iPod—certainly nothing to sneeze at. When I got my 5G iPod, I combined that break with a 10% discount for turning in my 1G iPod and saved a fair amount of cash.

Yet, as of last week’s introduction of new iPods, pricing on Apple’s Education Store for iPods is the same as it is for general customers. At the same time, Infinite Loop’s Jacqui Cheng, who noticed the lack of the discount online, did manage to score the same break at a brick-and-mortar Apple Store.

This seems a surprising move for Apple. Students, after all, are the age demographic that drives iPod sales and giving them a price cut means more iPods in their hands. Does Apple figure that students will still be willing to pay full price or is this a gaffe on their part?


3 Comments

Kelly Dumont said:

The price drop of the 5.5 gen iPods basically makes it equal or better than the edu. price used to be. I wonder if Apple isn't just considering it a broadening of the discount to everyone.

September 19, 2006 10:15 PM
Kris said:

If I remember correctly the previous price break took a 5G iPod down from $299 to $269. My guess would be that Apple is thinking that it is a $50 price cut for standard customers and a $20 pice cut for students/faculty. To them, it's still a cut. I think they know that college students are willing to pay $269 ... and that this price cut was more for the standard consumer.

September 19, 2006 11:11 PM
Dan--the man said:

They'll probably institute it later.

Get as many full-price sales first, then add it.

September 20, 2006 5:20 AM

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