Apple Student, Black Friday and Apple Certified Refurbished Discounts

There are only a handful of instances when Apple will discount its new Macs and MacBooks. The two most notable occasions are for academia purposes and for Black Friday promotions. Apple Education discounts are available year-round. Students, teachers and academic administrators are eligible for this special pricing program. Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving. The vast majority of stores reserve their biggest and best sales for this popular shopping day.To qualify for Apple Student and Education discounts, one must be enrolled or working at an academic institution. Verification is required, either through some physical identification card or through an academic email address. The enforcement of these guidelines might be stricter for those shopping at Apple retail stores as opposed to shopping online, where verification seems more lax. Apple Education Discounts vary depending on the product, but are pretty much capped off at 10%. The average discount is approximately 7-8%.Black Friday offers similar deals to consumers who are not part of academia. This once in a year occasion highlights Apple’s only sale. Every year speculators look forward to aggressive price cuts in the arena of 20-25%. Unfortunately, the pattern over the years looks to be more around the 10%. Apple Black Friday offers focus primarily on Mac systems such as desktops and MacBooks. Apple iPods are also included in the promotional efforts.It is no surprise that Apple rarely discounts their new products. Because Macs, MacBooks, iPods and iPhones are so popular, there isn’t really a need to market and push the products through discounts. Rather, one can imagine it being quite reasonable for Apple to maintain a premium value for these hot consumer items.An often unexplored option for consumers interested in discounted Apple merchandise is for them to consider Apple Certified Refurbished Products. These products can be found and purchased only through Apple’s online store. Found on a special deals section on the website, Macs, MacBooks and iPods are found to be discounted by as much as 40% off. MacBooks can be found priced by as much as 15% below original selling price. The savings pocketed with Apple Certified Refurbished Macs can be significantly more than that from Education and Black Friday sales.Apple Certified Refurbished Products are merchandise that comes from orders that have been recently cancelled or returned. They are inspected, tested, restored and repackaged by Apple. They are resold with the same warranty as their new counterparts and with the same accessories, cables and manuals.