Filed under: Leopard
Leopard Education pricing update
The other day I posted about Apple raising the academic price of Leopard, and while that is true it is only part of the story. Apple has raised the price of Leopard on their own Store for Education, but Leopard will still be available for a deeper discount at school bookstores (usually around $69).Many commenters shared this on the original post, but I wasn't able to confirm this with my sources until today. The most obvious reason for this move is that Apple has no real way of knowing if you are, in fact, associated with an educational institution when you order online. Most school bookstores require you to produce a school ID in order to make purchases of academically priced software, so Apple can be assured that you are, in fact, a poor student and not just cheap.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
jm130500 said 11:42AM on 10-18-2007
When Tiger arrived, my university sold it for $10. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but somehow I don't think it will be such a sweet deal again :(
Reply
Neil Christie said 11:40AM on 10-18-2007
The UK discount is very significant. If you buy from the Online store for Higher Education you can get it for £58.
Reply
K said 11:41AM on 10-18-2007
Hurray! Now I just need one of my uni shops to SELL Apple software....
Reply
jm130500 said 11:43AM on 10-18-2007
When Tiger arrived, my university sold it for $10. I'm
keeping my fingers crossed but somehow I don't think it will be such a sweet deal again :(
Reply
Kwahnoom said 11:44AM on 10-18-2007
At least some schools have customized Apple Stores online that can only be accessed by going through the university authentication system. The cheaper ($69) pricing also seems to be available for purchase-order arrangements (i.e. faculty and staff purchases).
Reply
pedro said 12:11PM on 10-18-2007
That is one of the most ridiculous lines of reasonings ever. So that means that all of the people who DON'T shop at a random school for education are the real losers, because Apple is apparently not enforcing any sort of requirement for those. As a part-time student taking classes online, I have no way of going to my campus store (since it's about 500 miles away). The most annoying part of all of this is that apple won't give you educational pricing -AT AN APPLE STORE- unless you buy a Mac with it! That way, at least I could present my school ID, but apparently Apple doesn't want you to do that, either.
The end result of this will simply be more torrents of Leopard.
Reply
Geoff said 11:50AM on 10-18-2007
Sites like AcademicSuperstore subscribe to a service from a national clearinghouse which allows them to electronically validate your student eligibility status during the ordering process. Apple needs to get with the game and do something like that instead of sticking us with an extra $50 "We Can't Prove You're A Student Tax."
Our small university's bookstore stocks only Windows XP Pro, Office Pro, and a few obscurities. No chance for me to get my legitimate $69 price.
Reply
Teejay said 11:51AM on 10-18-2007
That doesn't seem to be the case for me ~ I login using that student identification system.. and nope. the price is $115 CAD and last time I checked CAD > USD so its got nothing to do with conversion.
Reply
Sean said 12:00PM on 10-18-2007
My school in Canada is selling it through the Apple Online Store for $115. I called the campus computer store and they confirmed the price would be no different than this. However, another campus computer store at Brock University (http://www.bookstore.brocku.ca/) is advertising it for $69 on the front page of their web site. I subsequently contacted Apple and they claimed they didn't know why they were able to do this. I preordered anyways, but if my campus store is offering it for less, I'm going to be going after Apple for a reimbursement on the difference.
Reply
mac said 12:02PM on 10-18-2007
uk higher education store can only be accessed from IP on uni campus's but anyone can buy from the normal education store as any one with kids in school qualifies. my kids school is all iMac'd up i was delighted to see! :)
Reply
a ham sandwich said 12:08PM on 10-18-2007
the catch tho is will they sell it for around $69 on launch day? if i have to wait two months, i'll pay the $116
Reply
Aron Trimble said 12:16PM on 10-18-2007
This would make sense on Apple's part except for the fact that my university doesn't sell ANY Apple software.
Ps, I'm not going to lie, I have re-read the first paragraph of this post like 5 times and it still makes no sense to me.
Reply
Antoni Segura Puimedon said 12:18PM on 10-18-2007
I think they could check it for real just asking for international student card, since it is already accepted in Libraries, museums, opera and shows. I find it unrealistic to say that there is real discount through universities bookstores because this kind of facility either is not present, or doesn't distribute products outside windows world, specially here in europe. I still feel that apple has let us down on this one.
Reply
Tom said 12:20PM on 10-18-2007
A clarification on educational pricing at Apple stores -- my experience has been that they'll give you the standard 10% ed discount on any hardware (not just Macs), but to get the discount on software, you have to go through the Apple store/your bookstore.
Reply
UpgradeManiac said 12:42PM on 10-18-2007
At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, our DoIT (Dept of Information) Tech Store lists Leopard as $69. I cancelled my Apple Store order.
Reply
Tim Luckey said 12:28PM on 10-18-2007
I heard that we are getting it for 69 bucks at our school but I don't know where it will be....we have a bookstore and an Apple Store on campus! Who know I am just glad it will be cheaper that normal!!!!!
Reply
Aron Trimble said 12:33PM on 10-18-2007
Thanks Scott, you're the man!
Reply
Rhys said 12:34PM on 10-18-2007
Yeah, what about us students whose universities DON'T sell software for the Macs??
This is really quite inconvenient.
I've pre-ordered anyway... but still quite irritated about it. (However, still far far cheaper than... (shudder) Windows.)
Reply
julianne said 1:15PM on 10-18-2007
And what about the educator discount for teachers at K-12 schools? That's how we've always gotten the discount. These schools do not have stores.
Reply
Andrew said 12:40PM on 10-18-2007
This is why having a retail presence is great, you just check campus IDs at the store and you can confirm that the person is actually a student. Apple already does this, at least at the apple store close to me, I have to show them a drivers license and a photo college ID.
So basically, I'm going to have to call shenanigans on this one. At a time when Apple is raking in more dough than ever, and their profit margins are through the roof, they've decided to hit students up for even more cash. Thats real classy, apple.
Reply