2009 Apple Back-To-School Promotion Begins

[time space]

{Edit: Oops! Didn't realize there was already a thread in Hot Deals forum (http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=743095).}



Apple's annual Back-To-School promotion (http://store.apple.com/ca/browse/campaigns/back_to_school?mco=NjM0MDM1NQ) for students begins today, purchases have to be made by September 8th, and rebate forms must be submitted before October 8th.

Essentially you can get a free iPod Touch ($259 value) when you purchase a qualifying Mac (anything but a Mac Mini?).

BTW, Apple also slightly upgraded the specs (http://www.macrumors.com/2009/05/27/apple-releases-minor-update-to-white-macbook/) on the white MacBook today ($1099 for students).

- Processsor speed bumped from 2.0 GHz to 2.13 GHz.
- RAM speed bumped from 667 MHz to 800 MHz.
- Hard drive capacity increased from 120 GB to 160 GB. Build-to-order options up to 500 GB are now available, up from a previous maximum of 320 GB. Notably, the aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro continue to offer maximum hard drive capacities of 320 GB.

[time space]

For anyone considering taking advantage of this promotion and getting a Mac in the near future, here are some of my suggested buying strategies copied from another thread (http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?p=8810222):


The other consideration is the release of OSX 10.6 (aka: Snow Leopard) - it's rumoured to be coming out in early June at the WWDC, or September at the latest.

New systems come out on an 18-24 month cycle, so starting out a new Mac with the new system offers the best value. I've found that I keep my Macs for about five years, and that if the system is concurrent with the machine, they work well together for that length of time without upgrades.

However, if you buy a new Mac with a two year old system, you may have to upgrade to a new system midway during the computer's lifespan. This adds $129 (or about 10% of the cost of a MacBook) to your overall cost.


(Another minor consideration is that Apple usually offers a free upgrade to the new system to those who bought a Mac less than 30 days before the system's release.)


((Finally, you can always keep an eye on when new hardware is expected by having a peek at MacRumors.com's Buyer's Guide (http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook) - there's no big new MacBook model expected this year, but perhaps the processors will get a speed bump within your timeframe.))

[13sundin]

good, we will be seeing these iTouch es in the BST