Apple today quietly pulled its newly introduced $899 iMac from its
online education store. The entry-level configuration
released last week for the education market that features scaled-down specifications when compared to Apple's two retail configurations is no longer available to individuals, though institutions can still purchase the systems. The education iMac was nearly identical to its consumer counterpart with the exception of an Apple remote and dedicated GPU, featuring a smaller 80GB hard drive and a Combo optical drive. When contacted by
MacNN, Apple sales representatives were unable to provide an explanation beyond saying that the company made the change on Wednesday and that it was no longer available to education individuals for purchase.
Industry pundits have speculated the move was an attempt to channel sales directly to institutions, suggesting that the lower-priced configuration may have been cannibalizing sales of its other higher-margin retail configurations which are offered a slight discount to education customers. The $899 iMac is still available to educational institutions with an estimated ship date of 1-3 days.
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But we all know apple knows best. More is better!
the problem is right apple is probably only able to ship to institutions due to manufacturing constraints. the period leading up to september will invlove an educational feeding frenzy on this model. when the edu buying season slows down (probably by the winter holidays), you'll probably see this on the regular apple store.
Ifor one assumed it was only offered to institutional buyers or I would have bought one. In my view it was mistake. My guess is it would cannbalize other sales at the expensive of institutional buyers.
Apple does not even check to verify if people are in fact students.
They couldn't be, could they?
"Apple today quietly pulled its newly introduced $899 iMac from its online education store. "
Apple isn't a charity. Just because you want a dirt cheap all-in-one Mac doesn't mean you deserve one or that Apple should be obliged to sell you one.
But really people. Before the Mac mini everybody whined that they wanted a cheap CPU-only Mac. Now they have that, people are whining about a cheap all-in-one Mac. I guess you can't please everyone.
Except Apple released this thing so far into the institution buying season they've all but missed most potential sales. Schools need the computers over the summer so they can be set up and ready to go by the beginning of the school year. That means ordering in April/May/June.
Oh, and do you think there was a lot of demand from individuals because they actually saw an imac that was worth the price, to them? High demand for this item indicates, to me at least, that maybe Apple is missing their targets on their other models.
But really people. Before the Mac mini everybody whined that they wanted a cheap CPU-only Mac. Now they have that, people are whining about a cheap all-in-one Mac. I guess you can't please everyone.
No, we whined that we wanted a cheap monitorless tower, with some simple things like a PCI slot or 2, and changeable graphics. You know, what PC users have had for like 10 years now. In fact, the mini costs more then it could because of form over function. The small parts, cramped case, etc, increase its cost (and support costs), then a larger mac would.