Early deals: $250 off new MacBook Pros, $325 off Office 2008

[AppleInsider]

Some Apple resellers are launching their Black Friday sales early this year, such as Mac Mall, which is offering up to $250 off new MacBook Pros, up to $149 off new MacBooks, up to $159 off new iMacs, and up to $179 off MacBook Airs. Amazon has also slashed the price of Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition by $325 (65%).

Mac Mall, which offered deeper discounts than Apple last year, launched its Holiday Blowout sales overnight which includes up to 21% off iPods and up to $1094 off some Macs.

For the most part, the reseller's Mac deals combine instant discounts with added mail in rebates. Below, we've compiled a list of all current generation Macs, listing their retail price, MacMall's final price after rebates, and the total savings between the retail price and Mac Mall's price after rebates.

MacBook Pro

2.4GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro (unibody)
(Retail: $1,999.00; Sale: $1,798.99, Saving: $200)

2.53GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro (unibody)
(Retail: $2,499.00; Sale: $2,248.99; Savings: $250)

2.5GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro
(Retail: $2,799.00; Sale: $2,548.99; Savings: $250)

MacBook

2.1GHz 13-inch MacBook (white)
(Retail: $999.00; Sale: $898.99; Savings: $100)

2.0GHz 13-inch MacBook (unibody)
(Retail: $1,299.00; Sale: $1,179.99; Savings: $119)

2.4GHz 13-inch MacBook (unibody)
(Retail: $1,599.00, Sale: $1,449.99; Savings: $149)

MacBook Air

1.6GHz GHz 13-inch MacBook Air
(Retail: $1,799.00; Sale: $1,649.99; Savings: $149)

1.8GHz GHz 13-inch MacBook Air (SSD)
(Retail: $2,499.00; Sale: $2,319.99; Savings: $179)

iMac

2.4GHz 20-inch iMac
(Retail: $1,199.00; Sale: $1,097.99; Savings: $101)

2.66GHz 20-inch iMac
(Retail: $1,499.00, Sale: $1,369.99; Savings: $129)

2.8GHz 24-inch iMac
(Retail: $1,799.00; Sale: $1,639.99; Savings: $159)

3.06GHz 24-inch iMac
(Retail: $2,199.00; Sale: $2,039.99, Savings: $159)

Mac mini

1.83GHz Mac mini
(Retail: $599.00; Sale: $544.00; Savings: $55)

2.0GHz Mac mini
(Retail: $799.00; Sale: $739.99; Savings: $59)

Mac Pro

2.8GHz Mac Pro 8-Core
(Retail: $2,799.00; Sale: $2,549.99; Savings: $249)

Microsoft Office: Mac 2008

Meanwhile, Amazon.com jumped in early on Microsoft's Black Friday sale on Microsoft Office for Mac 2008, which is expected to yield discounts of up to 70%. Already, the online retailer is discounting the Special Media Edition by 65%, or $325.

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition
(Retail: $499.95; Sale: $174.99; Savings: $324.96)

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Special Media Edition Upgrade
(Retail: $299.95; Sale: $109.99; Savings: $189.96)

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

MacBook Pro

2.4GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro (unibody)
(Retail: $1,999.00; Sale: $1,798.99, Saving: $200)

2.53GHz 15-inch MacBook Pro (unibody)
(Retail: $2,499.00; Sale: $2,248.99; Savings: $250)

2.5GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro
(Retail: $2,799.00; Sale: $2,548.99; Savings: $250)

Wow, nice to see that extra ¢1 in savings!

[kim kap sol]

Even at 175 dollars, Office 2008 is a giant rip off...but 499!? Wow...I had no idea that was the suggested retail price. That should be criminal. But I guess it isn't because a lot of people seem to find that the price is justified.

Office 2008 might be "better" to some people that need some obscure features but is it 6 times better that it's worth buying over iWork @ 79 dollars? I'm totally bewildered. Is it a case of mass confusion? Do people think iWork can't read Office file formats? Do they think they'll be completely lost if they switched ot iWork?

[ByronVanArsdale]

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

Wow, nice to see that extra ¢1 in savings!

w00t! Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US!

[Alex3917]

Will the Apple store match the MacMall computer discounts, or not since it includes a mail-in rebate?

[Kasper]

Originally Posted by Alex3917

Will the Apple store match the MacMall computer discounts, or not since it includes a mail-in rebate?

They may not match the rebate, but the best way to find out is to print a copy of MacMall's site showing the final price after rebate (which it shows on each product page) and bring it to an Apple Store and ask.

Best,

K

[satchmo]

Originally Posted by Kasper

They may not match the rebate, but the best way to find out is to print a copy of MacMall's site showing the final price after rebate (which it shows on each product page) and bring it to an Apple Store and ask.

Best,

K

I guessing Apple retail stores in Canada won't match MacMall prices in the US.

[robb01]

These are some awesome deals

__________________

[WiggyWack]

And don't forget free Final Cut Studio 2! (with a letter to Steve Jobs... )

[grabowcp]

Any idea when the sale ends?

[Ireland]

Mac Mall is the slowest website in the history of the internet.

[eljefe84]

I have a question: Can Apple's black friday discounts be combined with education discounts? I am a student and I would like to use both if I can.

Thanks

[chazpat]

Am I the only one to notice the discounts aren't as great as Mac Mall is claiming? Most of them are less than 21% though they claim they are 21% savings. I think they plugged that in and forgot to change them. The 2nd gen ipod touch 8 GB is less than 10% off.

[ajmas]

Does anyone know whether this is only states side, since I am curious whether Apple plans to do this in their Canadian stores?

[AHeneen]

Office Special Media Edition has fallen to $139 since the article was written http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/pro...534&s=software. Anyways, what's the difference between this and the Home & Student edition (besides the "home" and "student" restriction on license)? From what I've read, is the huge price difference really just for a bunch of clip art/graphics?????

[Ohhshiiiiiit]

Is this sale only going to work in the morning or is it all day for black friday?

[macuser333]

I have found that the cheapest is to use ebay and live.com cashback. They give you 25% off up to 200 dollars and on top of that you can use the 10% off paypal coupons to save up to 300 dollars. There are MacBooks on there for 1200 so i got mine for 900. You cant beat that! Just make sure the sellers are legit and you are good. I am lovin it.

[zinfella]

Originally Posted by macuser333

I have found that the cheapest is to use ebay and live.com cashback. They give you 25% off up to 200 dollars and on top of that you can use the 10% off paypal coupons to save up to 300 dollars. There are MacBooks on there for 1200 so i got mine for 900. You cant beat that! Just make sure the sellers are legit and you are good. I am lovin it.

Right, I'm gonna trust the fraud plagued eBay, and PayPal, to save money on a Mac.

[chazpat]

Mac Mall has fixed the percentages off now. I'm hoping Apple will go 15% on the ipod touch.

[TBell]

Adobe CS4 is priced at $1, 800. I guess if you used every program everyday, it might be worth it. I guess the same can be said of Microsoft Office. If you used every program every day, it might be worth it.

Problem is, I doubt few people use every program. I use Word and greatly prefer it over Pages. However, Keynote is clearly better then Powerpoint. Yet, Numbers is no match for Excel. I can't stand Entourage, and prefer Apple's free Mail program.

Office's strength is that it offers the best compatibility amongst platforms. I used Pages today to write a letter because I was in a hurry and I liked the included templates. I then needed to send it to somebody. I tried saving it in Word, which it did. However, lots of the special formatting was lost. Things like Text Boxes do not transfer well in the conversion. With PDF, it isn't that big of a deal if the party you are sending the doc to doesn't need to edit it. Word also has a lot more features then Pages that you may or may not use.

My University offers Office for $33 dollars. If the choice was between Office and iWork, I'd pay $100 for Office because I mostly use Word and don't give many presentations. Luckily, I have both programs.

Originally Posted by kim kap sol

Even at 175 dollars, Office 2008 is a giant rip off...but 499!? Wow...I had no idea that was the suggested retail price. That should be criminal. But I guess it isn't because a lot of people seem to find that the price is justified.

Office 2008 might be "better" to some people that need some obscure features but is it 6 times better that it's worth buying over iWork @ 79 dollars? I'm totally bewildered. Is it a case of mass confusion? Do people think iWork can't read Office file formats? Do they think they'll be completely lost if they switched ot iWork?

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by kim kap sol

Even at 175 dollars, Office 2008 is a giant rip off...but 499!? Wow...I had no idea that was the suggested retail price. That should be criminal. But I guess it isn't because a lot of people seem to find that the price is justified.

Office 2008 might be "better" to some people that need some obscure features but is it 6 times better that it's worth buying over iWork @ 79 dollars? I'm totally bewildered. Is it a case of mass confusion? Do people think iWork can't read Office file formats? Do they think they'll be completely lost if they switched ot iWork?

You are joking aren't you? or just naive? Can you use Numbers '08 on a PC? Aren't PCs like more than 80% used (probably 90% as the 20% figure includes largely home use ) used in corporate America and the world which uses Office? Don't you think Microsoft should charge as high as they want to if it has that kind of demand? Do you know of any major corporation that uses Numbers '08? And as much as people on here hate Windows- Vista, XP whatever, Office on the other hand is a decent product - it's even advertised on Apple store's home page.

[teckstud]

Funny- no AppleTV on sale?
Hmmmmmmmmmm.

[zinfella]

Originally Posted by TBell

Adobe CS4 is priced at $1, 800. I guess if you used every program everyday, it might be worth it.

That's misleading. Adobe CS 4 has many incarnations, Photoshop CS 4, Illustrator CS 4, etc, and one is not forced to buy them all. There are various bundled packages, called Suites, and there's also the individual programs used to makeup the Suites. All can be bought individually, or, bundled in a Suite that is actually less expensive than buying each program separately. One is not locked into any particular Suite. There are probably folks here that don't know the difference, so lets not scare them off with misleading info.


There are a lot of people that use every program in a Suite, which is why Adobe offers the Suites in the first place. There's no "might" about it. For pros (graphics pros, photo pros, etc.) to remain competitive, Suite upgrades are a given.

[Sprockets]

Originally Posted by AHeneen

Office Special Media Edition has fallen to $139 since the article was written http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/pro...534&s=software. Anyways, what's the difference between this and the Home & Student edition (besides the "home" and "student" restriction on license)? From what I've read, is the huge price difference really just for a bunch of clip art/graphics?????

From what I can tell, the Home & Student version does NOT include Exchange support in Entourage. Only the "full" versions include Exchange support. I'm watching the Office discounts closely, as I'd like to have access to my work (Exchange) email on my Macs. I can access it on my iPhone, just not any of the actual computers!

I thought I read that Office (Special Media) would be offered at $125 this weekend. That's what I'm watching for. I believe Microsoft themselves said it would be sold at that price. Must research...

[BlueMeanie23]

For what its worth last night (Wednesday) when I saw this thread I went to MacMall and ordered the Office 2008 Special Media Edition for $69.99. Got the emails to confirm and saying it had shipped so the price is locked in. But this afternoon I was looking at MacMall and the price is now advertised as $173.99. Not sure what's going on with that. Just an FYI....