Discounted MBPs?

I'm almost sure I'm not going to find any true discounts on a MBP, but I'll just ask anyway in case you guys know something. Is there any way to get a new Penryn 2.4GHz at around $1500? That's how much competitors' charge for their notebooks with the same specs, some even charge less. I'm hoping Montevina brings a price cut...

 

Amazon has a rebate for I think $150 on MBPs, so you're looking at about $1850.

However you can get an education and have one for $1800.

An even better discount can be had with the ADC discount.

 

It's too bad the cheapest ADC costs $500, the 20% discount would only save $400, so I'd be paying $100 more. I'd probably buy a MBP at the end of their year or next summer if I get one.

 

The ADC Student Membership is only $99, if that applies to you.

If not, then I guess you're stuck with either Amazon, Education Discount, Craigslist, or some coupons at a B&M store.

EDIT: I just saw in your OP that you're hoping for a price cut with Montevina. It would certainly be nice, but don't bank on it. Apple's kept the pricing pretty consistent. The only way I could see them changing the price is if they included a new tier ("low-end" 17 inch or something).

 

For the ADC student membership, is it also 20% off? Do you just need to be a college student to be eligible?

 

Yeah, you need to be a college student (otherwise I'd get one). The 20% ADC discount applies to all of the ADC memberships except the free one.

 

Apart from ADC and/or Student discount, generally apple products don't get discounted much, if at all (from what I've seen). One exception is when products get refreshed, if you time it right you could luck out.

In Canada the older base MBP retailed for $2199 CAD. When the Penryn models got announced there was a 2-3 week period that followed where one can walk into BestBuy and grab the base (older) MBP, new, for $1799.

Some places discounted even more if you packaged applecare in. I was able to get my MBP (base model - see sig) with applecare, iWork, .Mac, Roxio Popcorn and a Tucano case for $2000 CAD.

My guess is the same thing will happen with the next refresh (Montevina), whenever that is.

 

Just got a MBP for $1800 with student discount.

 

What competitors? Apple hasn't allowed other companies to make Mac-compatible machines in a very long time. Macs are set off to the side from all the Dells and Toshibas and whatever elses, since Macs have OS X which only runs on Macs*. Apple can charge whatever they want since they have a unique thing going for them.

I just got a MBP 2.4 17" off ebay, refurbished, for about $2000. It was about the best deal I could have hoped for. It has the hi-res screen and 7200rpm hard drive, I just need more RAM for it. Apple has these on their site for about $2400, tho there would be tax on that also.

I'd say check out eBay, and see if anyone is just dumping one cheap. Of course be VERY careful when dealing with anyone on eBay.. I ended up very lucky, the people selling this MBP were local so I could just meet them and get it in person.

*- Yes I know, I ran it for a while and it was nice but we don't go there unless the mods let us, ok?

 

I'm talking about their competitors that make notebooks.

 

its very simple....macs cost more. If you want to run OS X you'll have to pay more, if not you should buy a dell and save some money.

 

In all fairness, macs don't cost that much more than a high end Dell or Vaio. When you compare them, generally you get slightly better specs on the Dells but design, quality and ergonomics go to macs and vaios. It's really an apples, pun not intended, and oranges comparison when people compare MBPs to Inspirons for example.

 

What is the ADC discount? Is it just the educational discount?

 

ATC, I hate when people compare Dells to other manufactures like Apple and Sony. For example, when I sold my Asus W3J, someone was trying to tell me it was not worth the amount I was charging because his Inspirion had better specs. LOL. Some people don't get it.

 

But when it comes to OS X, Mac notebooks do not compete with any other brand, since OS X is designed only to run on Macs. If any laptop could (easily) run OS X, Apple wouldn't have much going for it. The hook is in their specific operating system.

Think about it.. Why don't you just buy a notebook from a different brand? You already know the answer, and it's why you will pay a premium.

 

That is one of the advantages to using an Apple computer. There is a tight integration of the hardware and software. Where as with Windows, each manufacturer designs different hardware configurations in the hopes that they will be 100% compatible with the operating system.

 

Can the ADC student discount + College student discount be used at the same time?

 

a lot of people seem to miss a big concept. at least half of what makes osx good is possible only because it doesn't run on every computer ever.

Also, if we ignored what I just said above, it still doesn't explain the common question: "can i get a macbook pro and just run windows on it exclusively?"

the macbook pro is a sleek machine any way you look at it, and that has some real value.