Angela Ahrendts hints at upcoming back to school promotion in internal video
Apple's annual Back to School promotion appears to be a no-show for 2015, but a report on Saturday claims SVP of Retail Angela Ahrendts this week hinted to employees that a comparable offering could be coming soon.
Apple's 2014 Back to School promotion.
In her weekly global video address to Apple Store employees, Ahrendts suggested that a new educational promotion, potentially a replacement to Apple's Back to School sale, is in the works and could be announced soon, reports Consomac.
"I'm sure many of you are thinking also 'but is there anything else for Back to School?' Well, I need you to wait until next week's video and I'll share a little bit more insight with you then," Ahrendts reportedly said.
The statement appears signal an end to the annual Back to School sale and the start of a new program targeting the education market, an area in which iPad and Mac excels. While Ahrendts didn't confirm Apple's plans, the publication described her speech as upbeat, speculating the company has something in store for shoppers.
Apple traditionally kicks off the back-to-school shopping season with a buying incentives in the first days of July, but has not yet done so for 2015. Last year, on top of educational discounts, the company gave students and faculty Apple Store and iTunes gift cards worth $100 for every Mac and $50 for iPhone and iPad.
The education market is an important one for Apple and the company is said to be working on modifications to its existing "iPad in Education" program in a bid to spur wider adoption. Recently, however, iPad and Mac are seeing stiff competition in K-12 from Google's low-priced Chromebook platform and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft's Surface tablet lineup.
Apple's 2014 Back to School promotion.
In her weekly global video address to Apple Store employees, Ahrendts suggested that a new educational promotion, potentially a replacement to Apple's Back to School sale, is in the works and could be announced soon, reports Consomac.
"I'm sure many of you are thinking also 'but is there anything else for Back to School?' Well, I need you to wait until next week's video and I'll share a little bit more insight with you then," Ahrendts reportedly said.
The statement appears signal an end to the annual Back to School sale and the start of a new program targeting the education market, an area in which iPad and Mac excels. While Ahrendts didn't confirm Apple's plans, the publication described her speech as upbeat, speculating the company has something in store for shoppers.
Apple traditionally kicks off the back-to-school shopping season with a buying incentives in the first days of July, but has not yet done so for 2015. Last year, on top of educational discounts, the company gave students and faculty Apple Store and iTunes gift cards worth $100 for every Mac and $50 for iPhone and iPad.
The education market is an important one for Apple and the company is said to be working on modifications to its existing "iPad in Education" program in a bid to spur wider adoption. Recently, however, iPad and Mac are seeing stiff competition in K-12 from Google's low-priced Chromebook platform and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft's Surface tablet lineup.
Comments
"Buy a Mac, get Beats by Dre for free" would probably be popular. I'm serious.
Yeah. Buy a cool new computer and get a pair of really crappy headphones free.
People buy the things like crazy though. Especially college age kids who don't appreciate the finer side to audio.
Seems like getting headphones or music subscription would be unlikely to benefit someone academically. I wonder if Apple will target in this manner, or will just go with whatever they think may be popular regardless of the actual impact to education.
Free year of Office 365?
Yeah. Buy a cool new computer and get a pair of really crappy headphones free.
You sound like those iHaters who say only stupid people buy Apple products. Please get a clue.
ohh - that's low. Well below the belt.
ohh - that's low. Well below the belt.
A lot of colleges still require Office submissions, so it's not entirely unfounded.
They sure are !
Goog has made a big inroad in the education market - backed by Goog classroom https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Classroom
Classrooms not bad - could be way better but it has provided Goog with a viable way to gain traction.
The M$ techs servicing the schools networks push them here in NZ along with Classroom.
Price $330 - $730 NZD compared to $749 for an iPad Air 2
Seems like getting headphones or music subscription would be unlikely to benefit someone academically. I wonder if Apple will target in this manner, or will just go with whatever they think may be popular regardless of the actual impact to education.
Yeah, sure..... the $100 iTunes Gift Cards Apple gave out in the past were surely all spent on academic stuff....
Yeah. Buy a cool new computer and get a pair of really crappy headphones free.
They're popular. I think they're a terrible value, but they're still popular.
You sound like those iHaters who say only stupid people buy Apple products. Please get a clue.
He may sound like an iHater, but he's right. There are much better headphones to be had for what Beats cost.
Yeah. Buy a cool new computer and get a pair of really crappy headphones free.
And 75% of people that I see with headphones use the Apple earpods, which are 100X crappier- but they certainly don't mind. Beats sound fantastic for 95% of people I'm sure. They also happen to look pretty good, and have good branding, unlike almost everything else out there. The extreme audio snobs can grab something else. Pretty much 99% of people I see out and about are using either the white earpods or Beats. So, Apple basically owns the mainstream headphone market right now.
But you're right, they should have acquired a "better sounding" brand that no one will wear, instead of an ultra-popular one that people love.
For less, even. I'm disappointed Apple hasn't done more to improve them, they've just exploited them as a cash cow.
But you're right, they should have acquired a "better sounding" brand that no one will wear, instead of an ultra-popular one that people love.
I don't think they would have purchased Beats for the headphones alone. If they were after high quality headphones, they could have purchased a brand with better engineering and restyled them into something more stylish.
A lot of colleges still require Office submissions, so it's not entirely unfounded.
Yes, it is entirely unfounded ;-)
iWork can save any document in .doc or other windows format. And it's free.