Goodbye white MacBook, Apple takes the MacBook Air into education with new five-pack, mobile lab programs

Mark Gurman | Feb 10 2012 - 10:21 am PT

Early last week, Apple discontinued the white plastic MacBook, which had been an education-only item since mid-2011, but is continuing to sell the product to education institutions while supplies last. The remaining supplies are being sold for $899, and sources say that Apple’s white MacBook inventory for educational institutions is still rather high. While white MacBooks for education are a thing of the past, Apple is not giving up on education: they are launching two new MacBook Airs for schools programs today.

The first new program is called MacBook Air 5-Pack Bundles and allows schools to purchase the MacBook Air in bundles of five at a discount. There are six bundle options, and each bundle saves schools $20 per MacBook Air:

$4645 (comes out to $929 each): MacBook Air 11.6 inch, 1.6 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD.
$5560 (comes out to $1112 each): MacBook Air 11.6 inch, 1.6 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, AppleCare.
$5645 (comes out to $1129 each): MacBook Air 11.6 inch, 1.6 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD.
$6550 (comes out to $1312 each): MacBook Air 11.6 inch, 1.6 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, AppleCare.
$6145 (comes out to $1229 each): MacBook Air 13.3 inch, 1.7 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD
$7060 (comes out to $1312 each): MacBook Air 13.3 inch, 1.7 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, AppleCare.

These MacBook Air five packs are a solid deal for institutions looking to buy laptops for their students. The bundles begin shipping in 3-5 days.

Apple’s second program for institutions, launching today, regarding the MacBook Air is a mobile labs program. This new program bundles ten or twenty 1.6 GHz 13.3 inch MacBook Airs, (yes a new sku) with a mobile cart that includes an AirPort Extreme.

The ten-unit cart will cost schools $11,399 and the twenty-unit will cost $21,599. $2000 is added to the ten pack for AppleCare, and $4000 is added to the twenty pack for AppleCare.

By the way, Apple sells refurbished Airs starting at $699 for the last model and $849 for the current models along with the same OS and warranty if you feel jealous of EDU pricing.