Apple now offers basic 13-in. $999 MacBook Air to education buyers

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014


Apple has begun selling a less powerful version of its 13.3-inch MacBook Air to educational institutions buying in bulk for $999, filling the void left by the recently discontinued white MacBook.



The new model, only available to education buyers ordering in bulk sizes of five or more, features the same internal components as the 11.6-inch MacBook Air available to general consumers for $999. But the new, discounted hardware sports a larger 13.3-inch display. They are advertised to ship within three to five days.



The 13.3-inch education model and the entry-level 11.6-inch MacBook Air both feature a 1.6GHz dual-core Core i5 Intel processor, along with two gigabytes of RAM and a 64-gigabyte solid-state drive. They are also powered by the Intel HD Graphics 3000 chipset included on the Core i5 CPU.



The standard 13-inch consumer-level MacBook Air remains priced at $1,299. The speedier machine has a 1.7GHz dual-core Core i5 Intel CPU, 4 gigabytes of RAM, and a 128-gigabyte solid-state drive.



Last July, Apple discontinued its white MacBook, which previously served as the entry-level notebook in Apple's lineup. Its price point was filled by the 11.6-inch MacBook Air, which carries the same $999 cost.



Apple continued offering the white MacBook to education buyers for months, but this week the company finally ceased sales of the legacy notebook. Resellers have since been notified that the white MacBook is now classified as "end of life."



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    Extremely difficult to identify what is the most amazing aspect of Apple's strength : Their Engineers, their lawyers, their marketing people, their supply chain people ? They are all brilliant, really ...
  • Reply 2 of 26
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    Great buy! 13? seems too big to me now that I?m spoiled by an 11?, but extra real estate has its uses.



    And the current Airs are durable. I know someone?let?s call him ?Bagromme?? who dropped his air corner-first onto hardwood. The only damage was a deep dent... to the hardwood. Whereas I?ve seen plastic laptops crack under far less abuse. If I were a school, I?d want metal!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by umrk_lab View Post


    Extremely difficult to identify what is the most amazing aspect of Apple's strength : Their Engineers, their lawyers, their marketing people, their supply chain people ? They are all brilliant, really ...



    It?s their oft-overlooked buildings & grounds people. Outstanding, efficient work.
  • Reply 3 of 26
    As a school, we were previously able to get any quantity at the price of $899 with our education pricing. Now, the cheapest individual option is the 11-inch Air for $950 (unless we buy those 13-inch ones in a multipack as originally posted).



    That $50 to $100 per machine can add up quick, though. Our school only has 375 MacBooks in our 1 to 1 program, but I know of a lot of bigger schools with more. It is quite a bit more expensive overall.



    Also, though it is a faster SSD drive, we go from the 250 GB drive to 64 GB. We also lose the optical drive.



    I don't know if they are just trying to push more schools to the less expensive iPad (to make a bunch of money off the App Store) or the more expensive Airs or Pros to get close to the same features as before.
  • Reply 4 of 26
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    2GB of non-upgradeable RAM in a $1000 machine in 2012, for academic institutions that typically have upgrade cycles of 5+years? This is just beyond stingy. Lion is a frustrating experience on anything less than 4GB, and it's sad that Apple decided to handicap these machines from the get go, which will br used for a very long time after they're bought, simply to save a couple bucks on the RAM. Even I wouldn't purchase a 13' Air at a $300 discount that runs 2GB ram.. it would make all the difference for having a decent experience with it. Sad, as this otherwise would have been an amazing offer had they not so severely crippled it needlessly.
  • Reply 5 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by z_rand View Post


    Also, though it is a faster SSD drive, we go from the 250 GB drive to 64 GB. We also lose the optical drive.



    Dude, the 13 inch mentioned starts at 128 GB and its $300 less than list price. I'd be happy about that myself...
  • Reply 6 of 26
    I was half expecting an AMD Fusion one this year but Samsung has beaten them to it.



    Apple have this thing about being the first to certain features.

    Not so with copying stuff from those awful non upgradeable 'throw away netbooks'.
  • Reply 7 of 26
    cameronjcameronj Posts: 2,357member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    2GB of non-upgradeable RAM in a $1000 machine in 2012, for academic institutions that typically have upgrade cycles of 5+years? This is just beyond stingy. Lion is a frustrating experience on anything less than 4GB, and it's sad that Apple decided to handicap these machines from the get go, which will br used for a very long time after they're bought, simply to save a couple bucks on the RAM. Even I wouldn't purchase a 13' Air at a $300 discount that runs 2GB ram.. it would make all the difference for having a decent experience with it. Sad, as this otherwise would have been an amazing offer had they not so severely crippled it needlessly.



    I agree that it's too bad that they won't throw in an extra $10 worth of ram. But if you think an Air with 2gb is a poor experience, that just shows that you haven't used one. The ssd makes all the difference. I've set these up for a dozen clients and I've been SHOCKED at how well they run.
  • Reply 8 of 26
    It looks like this new bundle part number is BH306LL/A with AppleCare, BH302LL/A without.



    No ethernet port on this device is going to make imaging interesting. Wireless just doesn't have the bandwidth that ethernet does. Do we buy USB ethernet adapters for all of them just for imaging?
  • Reply 9 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    2GB of non-upgradeable RAM in a $1000 machine in 2012, for academic institutions that typically have upgrade cycles of 5+years? This is just beyond stingy. Lion is a frustrating experience on anything less than 4GB, and it's sad that Apple decided to handicap these machines from the get go, which will br used for a very long time after they're bought, simply to save a couple bucks on the RAM. Even I wouldn't purchase a 13' Air at a $300 discount that runs 2GB ram.. it would make all the difference for having a decent experience with it. Sad, as this otherwise would have been an amazing offer had they not so severely crippled it needlessly.



    I've also been disappointed in Apple's unwillingness to make 4GB of RAM the baseline. But, this is how they are making money. Would have been nice to be less stingy towards education customers though.
  • Reply 10 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Goldenclaw View Post


    No ethernet port on this device is going to make imaging interesting. Wireless just doesn't have the bandwidth that ethernet does. Do we buy USB ethernet adapters for all of them just for imaging?



    What's wrong with Thunderbolt?
  • Reply 11 of 26
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cameronj View Post


    I agree that it's too bad that they won't throw in an extra $10 worth of ram. But if you think an Air with 2gb is a poor experience, that just shows that you haven't used one. The ssd makes all the difference. I've set these up for a dozen clients and I've been SHOCKED at how well they run.



    You're right, in that I haven't used an air with 2GB. The one I own has 4. I've used Lion with 2, and noticed issues with responsiveness. I doubt the Air is somehow immune from this, as the SSD can't solve everything if ram is lacking.
  • Reply 12 of 26
    normmnormm Posts: 653member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Goldenclaw View Post


    It looks like this new bundle part number is BH306LL/A with AppleCare, BH302LL/A without.



    No ethernet port on this device is going to make imaging interesting. Wireless just doesn't have the bandwidth that ethernet does. Do we buy USB ethernet adapters for all of them just for imaging?



    All the current Airs come with Thunderbolt connectors, so I assume you would use that for imaging.
  • Reply 13 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by z_rand View Post


    As a school, we were previously able to get any quantity at the price of $899 with our education pricing. Now, the cheapest individual option is the 11-inch Air for $950 (unless we buy those 13-inch ones in a multipack as originally posted).



    That $50 to $100 per machine can add up quick, though. Our school only has 375 MacBooks in our 1 to 1 program, but I know of a lot of bigger schools with more. It is quite a bit more expensive overall.



    Also, though it is a faster SSD drive, we go from the 250 GB drive to 64 GB. We also lose the optical drive.



    I don't know if they are just trying to push more schools to the less expensive iPad (to make a bunch of money off the App Store) or the more expensive Airs or Pros to get close to the same features as before.



    Maybe Apple has something new in the wings and ran out of the white MacBooks quicker then they expected.



    If the classroom uses the iCloud for storage of documents, it will make it easier for the instructors to push their documents to the students and retrieve the students' finished assignments as well. The need for such large hard disks and internal optical drives are also lessened. All-in-all, I'd say this move away from HDs and optical drives will extend the operational life and school computers. Not to mention that when you drop a MBA it just flutters gently to the floor.
  • Reply 14 of 26
    bigpicsbigpics Posts: 1,397member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nagromme View Post


    Great buy! 13? seems too big to me now that I?m spoiled by an 11?, but extra real estate has its uses.



    But does it have "extra real estate" - or the same res as the 11.6 just blown up bigger?



    PS: And why didn't AI mention something as basis as the screen res? They can afford the electrons.....
  • Reply 15 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    What's wrong with Thunderbolt?



    You can buy a spool of Ethernet for $50. Set up the imaging to go over night, and you'd never know the advantage of thunderbolt for something like this.
  • Reply 16 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bigpics View Post


    But does it have "extra real estate" - or the same res as the 11.6 just blown up bigger?



    PS: And why didn't AI mention something as basis as the screen res? They can afford the electrons.....



    The 13" air has the same res as the base-line 15" mbp, 1440x900. The 11" has a resolution that's nearly the same in pixel number as the 13" mbp, 1366x768 for the air and 1280x800 for the 13"mbp



    Also, AI probably didn't mention the screen res because it hasn't changed the whole time we've had 11" and 13" MacBook airs.
  • Reply 17 of 26
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post


    2GB of non-upgradeable RAM in a $1000 machine in 2012, for academic institutions that typically have upgrade cycles of 5+years? This is just beyond stingy. Lion is a frustrating experience on anything less than 4GB, and it's sad that Apple decided to handicap these machines from the get go, which will br used for a very long time after they're bought, simply to save a couple bucks on the RAM. Even I wouldn't purchase a 13' Air at a $300 discount that runs 2GB ram.. it would make all the difference for having a decent experience with it. Sad, as this otherwise would have been an amazing offer had they not so severely crippled it needlessly.



    That same statement could have been just as accurate 5 years ago! my last purchase, and current Mac, a White MacBook of the late 2007 variant came with 1GB of ram, it seemed fine untill I tried to do anything more than reading Apple Insider in Safari - I upgraded that bad boy to 4GB within 48 hours of purchase, and today I cringe at the thought of replacing it with a Macbook Pro whos max ram is 8GB...if I needed 4GB 4.5 years ago...why would I be happy with only 8 in a few more years?
  • Reply 18 of 26
    a_greera_greer Posts: 4,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Leery View Post


    You can buy a spool of Ethernet for $50. Set up the imaging to go over night, and you'd never know the advantage of thunderbolt for something like this.



    <snarky sarcasm>

    LOL This is Apple Land! Money is no object here, we are "creative"!

    </snarky sarcasm>
  • Reply 19 of 26
    ssquirrelssquirrel Posts: 1,196member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bigpics View Post


    But does it have "extra real estate" - or the same res as the 11.6 just blown up bigger?



    PS: And why didn't AI mention something as basis as the screen res? They can afford the electrons.....



    It is the 1440x900 screen of the 13" MBA. It is the internals of the $999 MBA w/the externals of the $1300 MBA. My wife just bought that $1300 one last night. It has replaced her iPad as "My Precious!" (cue Gollum voice)
  • Reply 20 of 26
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Leery View Post


    You can buy a spool of Ethernet for $50. Set up the imaging to go over night, and you'd never know the advantage of thunderbolt for something like this.



    But you would if you had to reimage quickly in the middle of the day to get the kid a working machine for his next class. \
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