Apple's Back to School' Promo starts tomorrow, offers $100 iTunes Gift Card - Page 2

I was able to pick up a new 13" MBP for $999 at Best Buy.
They actually matched Micro Center's price. No rebates.
I also get $20 in BB reward zone store credit.
Not a bad deal and no rebates to deal with.

I agree. If you don't have an iPod my now you really aren't going to get one. The popularity of the iPhone makes having an ipod touch kinda useless too.

I however, wouldn't mind having an iPod Touch though to replace my old iPod.

The iPod touch is still selling well I think and there are quite a few people who don't want to be tied to a contract. It makes no sense for Apple to be giving those away for free.

I don't think it is this at all. It is actually seems like a very intelligent marketing strategy. Windows 7 will have Xbox Live integrated into the OS. You can also access Xbox Live via Windows phones. Why not offer students an Xbox now and get them utilizing a service that links all of their electronics? It's a plan that has the ability to offer customers services that they would lose if they purchase any Apple device.

And to everyone who keeps saying "quit complaining...you're getting something for free so buy your Mac and shutup" are either (1) not in school (and swimming in student debt) or (2) not the parent of a student in school. Apple is a premium brand. Like any premium brand, you are paying quite a chunk of change for the name. I've exclusively used Apple products for the past 7 years and these deals are one of the ways I can justify paying (at times) 2x the price for a comparable PC.

I was the lucky recipient of a very nice Apple gift card after I paid an arm and a leg for an iPhone the day it came out. Why can't we get an Apple gift card instead of an iTunes card (and make it $200 vs. $100)? Otherwise I'll probably choose to save close to $300 by picking the Toshiba Portege R835-P56X over the MacBook Pro 13" (and please don't give the tired "but PCs always break and Macs never do" fallacy...I've had my iMac's display and graphics board replaced three times in two years, but I've still been a loyal customer)

fcuk
it suck big time

dam sam


9

dude all those ipod touches feed a lot of families and gave dozens of pies of pizza too school kids

it wont taste the same

9

abject nonsense.

great line


9

As did many and i'm sure Apple knows this. Combine that with a potential lack of iPod overstocked due to the Japan earthquake and a lack of continued need to lure kids to Mac with the free iPod and he change makes sense.

Eve though this deal is not as good as the free iPod touch, it is good to know that some of this $100 is going to third party iOS and Mac developers.

To the user, sure, but the B&M prices aren't always a good guide, I wouldn't be surprised if those cards are treated as loss-leaders at those discounts, assuming they're real.

This sounds to me more like getting more apple ids signed up. iCloud is just around the corner.

I can confirm that they're real, frequent enough to be considered the "actual" price and not tied to any purchase.

http://www.giftcardsonsale.com.au/calendar/

Disclosure: I have no connection with the above website.

This is exactly how my mind reads posts of this nature. If you indicated you were turning the random Toshsamsonydell thingy into a hackintosh you would have a point worth making.

It's not that Macbooks don't go horribly awry, because they certainly do from time to time, it's that volunteering to use Windows software feels like volunteering to have a frontal lobotomy.

Loss leaders don't mean that it's tied to a purchase (can be, but not required), what it means is that it's a tool used to get you to visit their store, in the hopes you buy something else profitable enough to make up for the loss on the item that led you to the store.

+1!
a gift card that $100 of it goes right back to Apple........or....does it even leave Apple???!!!
;-[

Apple was bundling an iPod touch not an iPod. There are no iOS Store purchases with a Mac laptop but an iPod touch generates a lot of iOS Store purchases. Also, with a Mac and iPod touch you are recruiting a huge number of iOS developers, especially at colleges that offer iOS development classes (like Stanford).

I suppose it is possible Apple hopes to generate more apps for the Mac App Store with marginally fewer developers distracted by the iOS option. There was a disappointingly low percentage of new iOS developers who also developed for the Mac at WWDC.

I think I will buy a PC, get the free XBox.... then sell the PC unopened and put that money towards the new Macbook Air when its released, and get the $100 iTunes credit...

That's sad to hear; I was actually waiting for the 'Get a Mac and get a free iPT deal'. An iPT is worth 250 in Canada; switching this freebie for a $100 gift card is just a bummer. I wished they would give out $200 gift cards instead. But oh well, I have to get a Mac for school, might as well get it now before they cancel any promotion next year.

I like that idea. Why not both an AppleTV and gift card. When you consider that 30% goes back to Apple that $100 gift card isn't costing them much at all. Adding an AppleTV for the Summer would give a huge boost in presence before the SDK drops.



50% are new to Macs.



You started off being jerk so you shouldn't be surprised when by the responses.

I'm in the same situation. Wanted new iPod touch. My first gen's battery dies too quickly. I was planning on getting the 32GB model so it wouldn't have been free.

Anyone want to buy an iTunes gift card? lol
Will definitely be selling it as soon as I get it.

Oh, thanks for the laugh.
All I can say is that after working on PC's all day, I appreciate coming home to my Mac even more.

Was it the part about my being disappointed that labelled me a jerk? Did you read my post? I simply expressed disappointment in what is a comparatively weak promotion. Heaven forbid! Are you an Apple moderator?

We've already covered this, I would think. Let's try not to bring it up again.

It is about the ecosystem. I don't play many X-Box games (as I got my system as a gift). The gift, however, changed my intention to buy an Apple TV as all the same functionality in terms of syncing with my Mac and watching things like X-Box is built in.


I do enjoy Kinect Sports (another gift).

After more than 30 years of using exclusively Apple products and raising my family on them, we will have to be buying 3 pcs (yecch) instead of the 3 macbook pros we had been intending to buy when Apple did its normal ipod promo. We do not need or want anything form the app store so this promo is useless to us and the competition's back to school offer is just too great. If only we could use the $100 coupon towards ipods, Apple would not be losing 3 good lifetime customers. More actually, because we all like to be compatible on our platforms and the rest of us will be migrating eventually too.

So the computers are completely worthless to you. Great, you're not who Apple wants to sell to, anyway.


What about the iTunes store? The iOS App Store? The iBookstore? Because this works EVERYWHERE.


Enjoy Windows 7. Remember: Windows Was Your Idea.

They don't sell for that online, are you saying that B&M stores are cheaper than the online retailers like game-cards.eu? Who is selling them for 50 cents on the dollar? I'll get a friend to go buy me some.

I support Apple, but for all the Apple sycophants (who if Steve Jobs raised all prices by 150% would find a way to say it's a good move) this deal does stink. You say they don't have to give anything - true, but you can't go from giving away a $200+ item (iPod touch) that has multple uses (email, music, video, Internet, games, etc.) to a lousy gift card. iPod sales may be down, but I think touch sales are still respectable and if they want to continue competing with Nintendo and Sony the touch needs to keep being promoted. Not everyone wants or needs an iPhone. I guess if your job bonus gets cut in half you don't feel cheated cuz they don't 'have' to give you anything, or if you go to your favorite eatery and the manager gives a buy one get one half price but then change it to get a free coffee you don't mind. If Apple sets a pattern they should stick to it, at least give a free Nano or as someone else said a $200 gift card. $100 is not going to sway anyone on the fence about buying one.

All IMO!

Sure, you can. Apple just did.


What does that do for sales? They're not competing with Nintendo and Sony. Not directly.

I'm skeptical of the assertion that you're a lifetime customer of Apple, and then you're going to split because their promotional deal isn't as good as you'd like. What did you do before Apple even made iPods? Also, as noted elsewhere, "iTunes" money can be used on ebooks, iOS apps, Mac apps, music, movies, ring tones and probably other things.

Then why does Jobs like to point out how the touch sales and gaming app numbers and features in comparison to Nintendo & Sony if he doesn't want the touch to compete with the Game Boy/DS and PSP? To me the touch does compete.

Fan Boi/Employee alert. A BETTER way to do this promotion would be to offer the discount on an iPad equal in value to the iPod Touch.

Given Amazon's prices - and this garbage promo. It may, in some cases, be cheaper to pay the Amazon price sans the tax. If you buy through the Apple store you still pay tax.

It's funny how little (read: none) of that quoted material is 'fanboyish'.

LOL. You do understand you do actually have to use the PCs after you buy them? I am subjected to a Dell running Windows 7 at work. Not much fun. You will lose all the benefits of iCloud.

Apple already gives education customers a break. It isn't giving iPods away this year most likely because it doesn't need to clear inventory. Apple once gave me four hundred dollars off a Power Mac and threw in a free 17 inch monitor. I was very happy with Apple. I certainly haven't held it against Apple that I wasn't given this offer every year.

With all that said, I can see some college students going for the free X-Box.

Yes, Apple doesn't have to give away an iPod Touch. But it's still disappointing. Last year we held off on buying a new Mac during the summer promotion because we couldn't afford it. This year is my wife's final year in school, and we had budgeted all year to take advantage of Apple's back-to-school promotion. (We had one of our iPods stolen.) But it's just not the same getting a $100 iTunes/App Store gift card ... especially if we buy the Mac after Lion comes out. We just don't need $100 worth of iTunes/App Store stuff. We could have used a $100 Apple gift card, though, or maybe a free year of One-to-One membership or Apple Care.

And the Apple education discount isn't that good. For most models you can find similar or better pricing from places such as Mac Mall or Macconnectiion. So just like Apple doesn't have to give away an iPod Touch, we don't have to buy directly from Apple to get a new Mac. So we'll be buying from an online store where get a better price and aren't charged sales tax. It will end up being a better deal than the back-to-school promotion. So what Apple saves on switching from an iPod Touch to a gift card it will lose on not selling the Mac directly.

Seriously, get a real job if you don't have one, buy a Mac and enjoy a good machine. Do you go bargain hunting for the cheapest used Kia and demand a free Big Mac and indoor A/C unit when you shop for a car?

Actually, i am a Subaru man, but if the car dealership had thrown one in for the past 5 years, I guess I would expect one of each to come my way. Seriously, you can't tell me that you don;t like to get a good deal, and that you have never walked away from a deal that was less than you expected it to be!
Remove the Apple slices from your eyes, or wherever else they might be lodged, and wake up! Apples latest promotion is half of what it has been the past 5 years. If you are fine with that, you are either too wealthy for it to matter, or too blinded by Apple-speak to understand when you are being "corporated".
I know Apple is a great product, but is it too much to hope for some savings that have been offered to customers in the past? Sheesh! Get off your high horse.

Yes. I can. What's your point?


You're far more anti-Apple than anyone to whom you've responded is pro-Apple.


Or couldn't care less about the promotion at all. Or don't even want an iPod. Or...

then why do you care how others feel about this promotion?