New in OS X: Get MacRumors Push Notifications on your Mac

Apple Launches 2011 Back to School Promotion - $100 App Store Credit

Thursday June 16, 2011 1:07 am PDT by Arnold Kim

Apple has finally launched the Back to School promotion for 2011.

When you buy a new qualifying Mac with Apple education pricing* from June 16, 2011, through September 20, 2011, you'll get a $100 Back to School Card to use on the Mac App Store, the App Store, the iTunes Store, and the iBookstore.

As reported, this year's back to school promotion offers a $100 iTunes/App Store Gift Card with the purchase of a qualifying Mac. The promotion starts today and ends on September 20, 2011. International Apple Stores have also launched their local equivalents (65 British Pounds in UK, 75 Euro in Europe).

You must be a college student, student accepted to college, parent of college student or faculty/staff at any grade level. Qualifying computers include the MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, and Mac Pro. Readers should also note that any Mac purchased now will also get OS X Lion for free.

Update: Apple has posted the terms and conditions. When the new MacBook Airs are released, they will also qualify.

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

314631

41 months ago

This is great news for customers.

Rating: 16 Votes

NutsNGum

41 months ago

Terrible offer, frankly. I dont care what anyone says. Microsoft are offering a far greater value of product - both in terms of worth and enjoyment - in the xbox, with computers that cost far less than a Mac.

I think it's legitimate to feel somewhat let down by this.

Rating: 12 Votes

Fliesen

41 months ago

i dig the 3 featured apps.

productivity, productivity, pro...crastination

Rating: 10 Votes

keewawa

41 months ago

Too bad this year~ I was waiting for such long time to have a free iPod Touch, but now it's gone~:mad:

Rating: 8 Votes

daneoni

41 months ago

Am i the only one who thinks this is paltry? Only $100/£65 and you can't even use it towards hardware. You have to go to one of the stores and feed Apple an extra 30% :rolleyes:

Such stingy, BS marketing. Glad i've never taken this promo seriously anyway.

Rating: 8 Votes

CFoss

41 months ago

I see people are claiming that students shouldn't be disappointed, as Apple is still giving them something extra which they should be grateful for. I suppose they should grateful... but a $100 voucher is absolutely nothing compared to a $250 iPod Touch that Apple has given out in previous years. It's disappointing to those who were anticipating the same iPod that previous students have received, and it ESPECIALLY hurts when Microsoft has stepped UP their game by giving out a free Xbox 360 with their computers.

Rating: 8 Votes

gnasher729

41 months ago

So when it comes to pricing their products USD = EUR. But when it's for price reduction this doesn't apply??

Get a clue. First consider that US prices don't include tax, European prices include huge amounts of tax (VAT, MwSt, whatever). Second, European prices include the cost for much higher cost of warranty due to European consumer protection laws.

Then look at prices for applications on the AppStore.

Rippoff in europe, they let us pay the dollars prices in euro's for the hardware and when it comes to gift cards we only get 75 euro instead of 100!

You can avoid the "ripped off" feeling by pressing the Cancel button and telling Apple that you don't want the gift card at all.

Rating: 8 Votes

farme

41 months ago

Good Deal for Apple, since they're getting back 30% of that "discount" anyway....

Rating: 7 Votes

spcdust

41 months ago

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 after all these years of being such a loyal Apple user you'll now switch everyone over to Windows on the strength of this promotion not being to your liking. Yeah of course you will and if you really are then four words for you.....

Good luck with that.

Rating: 6 Votes

Mr Fusion

41 months ago

People Here wouldn't be complaining as much if they saw next year's promo:

"2012 Back To School Promotion: Get a free Thank You card from Steve Jobs with the purchase of $2,000 or more."

It looks something like this:

"Thanks."

- Steve

:rolleyes:

Rating: 6 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]

Our Staff