In an echo of the furore that met the release of the original eMac, Apple has withdrawn its new education-only iMac from sale to individuals. The new product was available for purchase by individual students and teachers through Apple's resellers and online and high street stores, but this has now been changed. Apple will now only sell the new education iMac to institutions.
A note to dealers reveals: "Please be advised that the iMac for education is no longer available to education individuals. Effective immediately this product is only available to education institutions. The product will be removed from the Apple Education Individual Stores from 12 July 2006."
The move to withdraw the Mac, which costs £544 (excluding VAT), has not been explained, though the product was only ever aimed at the education market.
It's an odd reflection of what occurred when Apple launched its education-only eMac. The company experienced a cacophony of requests from potential customers who wanted to buy what was at that time Apple's most affordable Mac.
So strong was this demand that Apple eventually relented and began selling the eMac to the general public.
News source: Macworld UK
A note to dealers reveals: "Please be advised that the iMac for education is no longer available to education individuals. Effective immediately this product is only available to education institutions. The product will be removed from the Apple Education Individual Stores from 12 July 2006."
The move to withdraw the Mac, which costs £544 (excluding VAT), has not been explained, though the product was only ever aimed at the education market.
It's an odd reflection of what occurred when Apple launched its education-only eMac. The company experienced a cacophony of requests from potential customers who wanted to buy what was at that time Apple's most affordable Mac.
So strong was this demand that Apple eventually relented and began selling the eMac to the general public.

Gerry
Clearly you have a problem with Apple, so if you don't like them as a company, please do not comment.
Clearly you have a problem with Apple, so if you don't like them as a company, please do not comment.
By forcing you to purchase the more expensive Macs if you want one. If these are cheaper than the general market computers, guess what? They're doing exactly what he said.
Clearly you have a problem with Apple, so if you don't like them as a company, please do not comment.
Most people doesn't know how to order from there school or doesn't know that option is there. It would have been a lot better if they put it in stores but have a student ID only system.
Last year when OS X.4 came out, I headed over to the Apple.com store and pre-ordered it at the student price. I expected to get an email telling me to fax my schedule or university ID, but didn't. I guess they were hoping that people would use the honor system. Seems to me that this had to have happened because people didn't care about the honor system. Only God knows how many cheated on the form and bought at the student rate only to resell it and make some $$$.
I really had my eye on the edu. iMac so I can use BootCamp/Paralells and just have some fun with the new Intel chips. I guess I'll have to live with the iBook for a little longer until I absolutely need a new machine.
The purpose of a BUSINESS is to MAKE money......if they LOOSE money, they won't be in business long.
Unlike a lot of people, good for them! Unless you want to go to a stupid socialist system where nobody gives a crap what products are produced, how they do their jobs.....then doing what apple did makes PERFECT sense!
If a student buy an Apple notebook now they will use it for the next 2 years and will most likely remain loyal to Apple after they leave uni a few years down the track as that is what they have been using for all their studies and productivity. It ensures sales once the student has left studies and apple makes more money.
Now if a student cant afford an Apple notebook or the windows based ones are cheaper a student may well just go for the standard laptop. They will use this for the next few years and thats what they will be sticking to for work. Keep in mind that for most people any computer hardware purchased while being a student will be their first purchase. Look at how many people love Nintendo despite not owning their console based on it being their 1st gaming experience when they were young. If you can grab them while they are young you will find many consumers will be loyal for life.
Apple will still sell alot of laptops to students but they have removed a great incentive for them to do so. Sure immediatly it MAY mean more profits (althought not necessarily), in the long run it doesnt seem like the best of moves. Apple is still behind in the computer world to windows based PC's so its still crucial for them to geat as many users onto their platform if they want to succede in the long run and an educational pricing scheme is one way to do it.
He was literally going to pick one up this weekend as he just moved into a new apartment and wanted to get a new set up.
Not the smartest move I do not think, as I imagine they could have sold a few more if they just kept it as it was.
Yes, there are still ways around it like getting a student to buy it on your behalf but most people wont scoop to this and other companies can cope with it. I'd say it's to do with money even if it means less students are buying apple products now. They may be selling less but perhaps they werent making a large enough cut on the hardware and noone was buying apple owned software after market or something. I duno, it would require an official statement.
Possibly right, but even browsing the page on campus just now I still show the $899 Educational iMac.
Strange?
Why? Because if you are actually a qualified user according to Apple's "terms" you should be able to get one from your educational institution without a problem.
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