Our son is off to college in a couple of months. His preference for a laptop is Apple. Never having purchased any Apple products, I have no idea where to get the best price. Is there such a thing as a deal on an Apple product?
Not really.
Apple doesn’t discount much, and never has “clearance” sales.
However, they do have significant discounts on refurbished items. These come with a full warranty, and are usually indistinguishable from brand new. They are generally machines that someone has bought, and then returned because they couldn’t figure out how to turn it on, or something like that. You can find the refurbished items on the Apple store page, with the “price tag” symbol.
If your kid has a college email address, Apple’s website offers education discounts. And I think right now you can get a free iPod touch with a laptop purchase. Think the discount is usually around $100 bucks or so, and like I said often they run free iPod discounts - when I bought my iBook in 2004 for college I got a free iPod and printer.
Adding details to what myskepticsight has said:
I am assuming you are in the US.
To get the educational discount, you have to buy through the online Apple store. Near the beginning of the school year, there is typically a promotion where a free iPod is given with an Apple computer.
A national chain that carries Apple computers is Best Buy. I have heard (but not confirmed) that Best Buy may also give you the educational discount.
To find out the price of your computer with the educational discount, go here:
and click on “Education Store” in the left-hand navigation bar, near the top.
If you are near a “brick and mortar” apple store (your username makes me think that perhaps you are), it might be worth your time to go look at their systems at one of those stores, you can find locations here:
http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/
Finally, it’s helpful to check the Mac Rumors buying guide before buying an Apple product
They keep track of how long it’s been since a model has been last updated, and advise you if a new version of it is likely to be announced soon.
I forgot to address the “getting a deal” part of your question.
You will not be able to get great deals on Apple products, there won’t be stores that have it at 20% off or anything like that. The rerfurbished products that beowulff mentioned would be found at the online apple store.
You might save a few dollars at an online merchant like MacMall http://www.macmall.com but the savings will be minimal.
My experience with our two household desktops and one laptop is to buy the extended warranty (Applecare). My husband’s computer has been perfect for years; mine is wonky and the laptop is going in to get fixed soon (it’s less than a year old). Apples are good, but get the extended warranty.
Going to an independent Apple retailer didn’t net me any savings; however, the service and support (at this particular store) is first-rate. I’ve only been in an Apple store once and was a little put off that I walked in there with a list of specs and complete configuration for a PowerBook, and the “Genius” I talked to (yes, that is what they call them) give me a hard selling pitch.
You have a year warranty and the option of extending it to three years before the year ends. I’ve personally never bought it, as I have never had problems and find the laptops to be so robust that it would really take a deliberate act of negligence or vandalism to damage one (the same reason I don’t get extended warranties on Subarus) but every once in a while they do come out with a glitchy product, so it depends on your level of acceptable risk.
Stranger
It must be my personal magnetism - both my desktop and my laptop are having problems.
That’s not the problem, it’s your lack of faith in Steve Jobs.
On a more serious note: I can’t believe some people would advocate buying an extended warranty on a computer that costs 3-5 times more than it should for the parts you get. First you get ripped off over paying and then the people that are “fans” of it say you need the extended warranty. I can’t believe it. Extended warranties are basically scams for the people who can’t do the math.
Anybody remember the Simpsons episode where Homer drives a crayon back into his nose and says, “Extend warranty! How can I lose???!!!”
Aside from the online Apple educational discount, many college campuses offer their own special deals on Apple products (usually by throwing in free printers, meal points, etc.)
Amazon.com is another good choice not because they’re significantly discounted (they are discounted a tiny bit sometimes) but because you usually won’t have to pay for tax and shipping. No tax = up to perhaps 10% savings for you (depending on locality), though of course you’d 'be ripping off your government. Third-party sellers on Amazon also sell used items (have you considered that? Very few people need the power of latest-generation computers); tax and shipping will vary with those sellers.
eBay is another good place for both used and new items. Here, too, you will rarely have to pay tax to those sellers. Many purchases are also eligible for 8% Microsoft Bing cashback (keep refreshing the page until the cashback offer shows up in the sponsored links at the top), which will arrive as a check or Paypal credit a few months later.
If you buy used, just make sure the computer still has Applecare warranty protection.
Oh, one last option:
For $99/year, you can become an official Mac Developer (no actual development experience or desire required). This grants you access to special hardware prices from Apple’s Developer Connection store, with savings up to $460 (20% off) for a 17" Macbook Pro (less on other things… some things won’t be worth the $99 the program costs).
When I bought my current laptop a couple of weeks ago, I was able to get the educational price by buying it at the bookstore. I didn’t get a free iPod with it, but I did get a free printer (though apparently the changed the promotion since then; there are signs advertising the free iPod now).
Quick question for the still-in-school Dopers: have colleges adapted to Apple’s surge in popularity? I know when I was in school/grad school, the Apple-owners would end up doing ridiculous things like borrowing a Windows laptop to take tests on. The whole system was Windows, Windows, Windows and good luck to you if you try to use anything else. Is it still that bad? If so, that would be something to think about before shelling out the dough on a Macbook…
No, Macs have gained a lot of popularity. College students are probably one of Apple’s main markets now, actually, thanks to the iPod converts. They’re everywhere on campus.
Besides, all modern Macs can run Windows and/or Windows software with just a little bit of configuration.
Ebay. Make sure it’s still under Applecare and buy more if you can. You can look it up on Apple’s website if they give you the serial.
Most things that would be required like that are done on platform-neutral web apps, now. And it’s getting to the point where just as many faculty members have Macs as students do, so if there is some platform-dependent software that would be necessary or useful, the professors generally make some effort to find Mac versions or equivalents as well.
One more idea that hasn’t been offered up, Best Buy. Signed up for the Reward Zone Program and make some Best Buy bucks back so you can get yourself something back.
Look at the Mac magazines at the newsstand; some of them are (or used to be) 40% ads, with the ads taking up the back chunk of the magazine. Buy the magazines that are like that, and then call the 800 / 866 / 888 / etc numbers for all the advertisers in the back and tell them what model(s) you’re interested in; and let them know you’re comparison shopping for the best price. Pretty soon you’ll see where the price cellar is and you’ll be asking “Can you do better than $XXXX”, your best price so far.
The very best price points are often on Model X about 2 weeks after Model X+1 has been announced, so timing counts for quite a bit.
Floor models should go cheaper than those that were never out on display.
You do, of course, want to make sure that the equipment you buy can be appropriate registered with Apple, but that’s usually not an issue; buying from these folks isn’t like buying from Craig’s List. (Pay with credit card, one that you’ve got a good history with for reversing spurious charges and inaccurately advertised purchases).
Many of these dealers will give you more options than the limited set of choices from Apple: want the faster processor but don’t need the extra RAM? want some additional software bundled with it? don’t need the power cords and video adapters? Never hurts to ask.
My friend just got a refurbished laptop from the Apple store. We couldn’t tell it from new. As a recent convert sitting at an iMac, I want one of the laptops now. Want it bad. I can just feel myself being seduced.
About the extended warranty business, I’m sure it’s profitable for Apple, and you should decide to whether to buy depending on whether you could afford the loss. I can replace a computer, so I’ll have better financial success overall by not buying plans like this. Losing my house would be catastrophic, and I would have a pretty hard time recovering from the hit, so better to pay a little extra to manage the risk itself (as opposed to the average probability of losing it).
You might be able to get a (relative) deal from the aforementioned MacMall on the previous generation of MacBook Pros, since the new ones just came out. I just bought the new one, and it is indeed Da Bomb, but my old MacBook Pro was still a durned fine machine.