Apple extends iPad AppleCare+ coverage to 3 years for educational institutions
Schools buying iPads for faculty or students can now receive an extra year of AppleCare+ warranty coverage, bringing it to three total years of protection, for the same $99 flat price.
AppleInsider was tipped to the change by Twitter user @pxlate on Wednesday. When checking out of an Apple educational institution store online, buyers are presented with a yellow box offering them the ability to add AppleCare+ to their order.
But instead of the regular two-year coverage period, AppleCare+ for institutional buyers now carries three full years of warranty protection. The price is unchanged at $99.
The change is limited solely to institutional buyers, and does not apply to education purchases made for personal use by students or faculty. AppleCare+ coverage for the general public also still carries a two-year iPad coverage period for $99.
The expanded warranty coverage represents an additional push by Apple to maintain its dominance among tablets in the education market. The company boasted in its most recent quarterly earnings report that the iPad had over 95 percent share of the U.S. education tablet market.
"The focus in education is on penetration, is on getting more schools to buy, and my belief is the match has been lit," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said. "It's very clear to the educators that have studied this that student achievement is higher with iPad in the classroom than without it. And so I'm confident we've got a really great start in education far beyond the U.S. now."
AppleInsider was tipped to the change by Twitter user @pxlate on Wednesday. When checking out of an Apple educational institution store online, buyers are presented with a yellow box offering them the ability to add AppleCare+ to their order.
But instead of the regular two-year coverage period, AppleCare+ for institutional buyers now carries three full years of warranty protection. The price is unchanged at $99.
The change is limited solely to institutional buyers, and does not apply to education purchases made for personal use by students or faculty. AppleCare+ coverage for the general public also still carries a two-year iPad coverage period for $99.
The expanded warranty coverage represents an additional push by Apple to maintain its dominance among tablets in the education market. The company boasted in its most recent quarterly earnings report that the iPad had over 95 percent share of the U.S. education tablet market.
"The focus in education is on penetration, is on getting more schools to buy, and my belief is the match has been lit," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said. "It's very clear to the educators that have studied this that student achievement is higher with iPad in the classroom than without it. And so I'm confident we've got a really great start in education far beyond the U.S. now."
Comments
Nope, 3 years total. Interestingly, I ordered some iPads for a school last week and received an email from Apple saying they were automatically upgrading my 2 year AppleCare to 3 years.
So, to be clear, you get 12 months anyway so the 3 years is adding 3 years to the 1 year, so in total, 4 years?
Yesterday's AppleCare+ really only added 1yr to the warranty, but now it adds 2yrs making it a total of 3yrs just like it does on the Mac (only with accidental added in).
That's what confused me. My Apple care has always added 2 years to my 1 year at the end of the one year. So I had an additional 2, hence 3 in total. So I read now they make it three years Apple Care and assumed it's 4 total. So if it is 3 what's changed? Or is this specific and different for education?
Oh so this is specifically education, my bad I didn't know they had a lesser cover than us ordinary folk.
...It would be nice to offer this to educational purchases by faculty and students, as well as extending it to iPhones.
I was getting a big ole chubby till I read that it was for "educational institutions only" - time for a cold shower I guess ¡
Really is great for the educ mkt but boy I can see it now, it is gonna cost Apple a lot to repair those in the public educe mkt (thinking K-12).
E-mail from Apple repair:
7 of the 10 iPads you returned for repair had be exposed to moisture (from the smell I'd say in the toilet) of those 5 had foot prints on the screen and 9 of 10 had video camera on while being thrown like a frisbee. We would be happy to repair these but those incidents are not covered under your extended warranty AppleCare+ plan.
P.S. Anybody else remember Sister Mary Elephant from Cheech & Chong's Big Bambu ?
Edit 11:31AM central DYAC!
That's what confused me. My Apple care has always added 2 years to my 1 year at the end of the one year. So I had an additional 2, hence 3 in total. So I read now they make it three years Apple Care and assumed it's 4 total. So if it is 3 what's changed? Or is this specific and different for education?
When you as yourself buy AppleCare+ for your iPad, you're not getting 3yrs total. You're getting 2yrs. You get the original 1yr AppleCare and when you spend $99 for AppleCare+, its adding 1 additional year plus accidental for a total of 2yrs coverage.
When you buy AppleCare on the Mac you're getting the 2yrs added to the 1yr that comes standard for a total of 3yrs.
So this is explaining that when schools are purchasing AppleCare+ for their iPads, they'll be getting 3yrs total. Everyone else gets the same 2yrs if they choose to purchase AppleCare+.
I know its confusing and I have to explain this to people from time to time. I've heard Apple or Apple Employees say AppleCare 2yr warranty which can confuse people because they're thinking they're purchasing an additional 2yrs plus the 1yr it came with for a total of 3yrs coverage and this isn't the case. Everyday people get 2yrs coverage if they purchase AppleCare+. As of today, educational institutions are getting 3yrs.
Which is a great deal for any school that isn't a Self-Servicing school. But if you are, what's the point unless Apple starts jacking up replacement prices?
We also have remember these aren't iPhones so they're not being replaced every 2yrs. These are more like computers in terms of how long people keep them. You'll see schools keep these iPads for 3-4, maybe even 5yrs if they can. They're not cheap to replace brand new, especially if you have a significant number of them even if you turn them back into Apple for a credit toward the purchase of any Apple purchase (which schools can do).
Most schools aren't self-servicing schools. There's no money for that kind of thing in most districts. Its easier to add $99 to the cost and have Apple take care of everything when there's an issue. I've had to deal with this and its a very easy and quick experience. Most users aren't down more than a couple of days for any replacements. Everything was always shipped out overnight both ways. Thats actually quicker than most IT departments can do.
Thanks. Yes I was assuming Macs and iPads were the same plan. I learn something new everyday!
We also have remember these aren't iPhones so they're not being replaced every 2yrs. These are more like computers in terms of how long people keep them. You'll see schools keep these iPads for 3-4, maybe even 5yrs if they can. They're not cheap to replace brand new, especially if you have a significant number of them even if you turn them back into Apple for a credit toward the purchase of any Apple purchase (which schools can do).
Most schools aren't self-servicing schools. There's no money for that kind of thing in most districts. Its easier to add $99 to the cost and have Apple take care of everything when there's an issue. I've had to deal with this and its a very easy and quick experience. Most users aren't down more than a couple of days for any replacements. Everything was always shipped out overnight both ways. Thats actually quicker than most IT departments can do.
Very true on how schools keep their equipment. Most will indeed be kept on a 3-5 year rotation, depending upon the school. The problem though is the law of averages here. Let's say I purchase 500 iPads, and decide to add AppleCare to them. That is an additional cost of $49,500 to my budget! That's not counting the $149,500 I'm already spending with Apple on the iPads (assuming 16GB, iPad Mini). And that's only for the consideration of 3 years.
Once past 3 years when the batteries start to fail, they're out of warranty anyways, and I have to pay exchange prices through Apple on new equipment. So that is money that was absolutely, positively thrown away.
For damaged iPads there is still an exchange fee as well. Which will then go beyond what I've already paid out. Figuring this off the top of my head, I would need a massive failure rate of at least a third of our inventory that would need to be swapped out before AppleCare could show any savings on this. Not even user-related damage rates are this high.
As for holding a Self-Servicing Account with Apple, it's not that hard to do at all. No fees the first year, you can only work on your own equipment owned by your group, you can only install parts you buy from Apple, and finally you have to have at least 1 ACMT, or Apple Certified Macintosh Technician. It's not that expensive at all, and in comparison is FAR CHEAPER than AppleCare. Apple still delivers parts overnight, the repairs are completed in-house, the organization saves money and ensures it's security with the repairs being in-house. The bonus also being the various pricing structures too for parts. But, yes, it's cheaper for a self-servicing account. With the money saved you can easily set up shop, and certify your employee(s) as ACMT (or at least replace them with a new one who is) for your own repairs at a fraction of the cost.
When my company, which had a fully authorized Apple repair division, supplied tons of Macs to a large educational department for every school in the county (this in UK) I worked out a deal (at there request) to cover the equipment (excluding user caused damage) directly that was less than extended warranty but still more than cost to my company on an 'as needed basis'. It was a bit of a gamble I suppose but it worked out as we had very few repairs and the education authority were able to afford more Macs than they would have done paying for the full coverage on every Mac. We looked at them running their own internal authorized repair department (my preference) but they decided against that. Point being there are always ways to solve these issues.
So are they included and go to 3 years??
Or only new orders?
I see this as recognition that iPads are kept for longer than iPhones. I think Apple should offer three years Applecare for all iPad owners and five years for Macs.