There are those amongst the newly initiated Apple community members who may not realize that Apple offers discounts to certain groups of users and potential users. The three major groups are Government employees, Businesses, and students.
The discounts provided are on a myriad of products. Anything from iPods, to Macs, to Apple software. There are of course exclusions. The biggest exclusion is the iPhone. Governmental employees and students pay the same price for an iPhone as the rest of the general public. Now they may be able to get discounts on their wireless service, but for that you would have to talk to the carrier.
The latest products added are related to 10.6 Snow Leopard. So I’ll give these as an example to show the discounts. The retail price for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Client single-user upgrade is $29. The price for Governmental employees is $24.10. The family-pack retail cost is $49. While the governmental discount cost is $40.70. Sometimes even governmental employees do not get a discount. Take for instance OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server. Even for Governmental employees the price is the same as retail, $499.
The odd thing is that students do not get discounts on Snow Leopard nor on iPods. It appears that the only discounts students receive are on Apple computers themselves; however, these are the most expensive items and are the ones that really need the discounts. The one place that Students do receive a discount on software is with Office 2008 for Mac – Home and Student Edition. It is $129.95 which is $20 off. The other place where students do get a discount is on Apple Care. Now they only get a discount on the products that they can get discounts on. This includes the Macbook, iMac, Displays, Mac Pro, Macbook Pro. And these are hefty discounts. The retail price for a Macbook Pro Apple Care warranty is $349. For students the price is $239. That’s $110 or about 31% off. That’s a huge savings.
Retail Apple stores are not the only place to receive these discounts. Any Apple Authorized Resellers are able to also provide the discounts. The biggest one that is most accessible, within the United States, would have to be Best Buy. Just make sure to explore each avenue. Of course, if all else fails Amazon.com is a good place to get your Apple gear.
