Mac4Ever is reporting that Apple has confirmed that the Apple on Campus program, allowing students to buy significantly discounted Macs and accessories via their college, is no longer available in either Belgium or Switzerland. The confirmation was provided in a one-line response by Apple Switzerland.
Yes, Apple on Campus was stopped. However, the Apple Education Store discounts are obviously still valid …
The discounts available through the Apple Education Store are lower than those available when buying through the Apple on Campus program.
It had earlier been thought that the decision might just relate to specific colleges, but now appears to apply throughout the two countries. One specific program in Switzerland, known as Neptune, is continuing for now, but its future is uncertain.
Apple has always been proud of its involvement in education, last month rolling out its new volume purchasing program for iOS apps to 16 more countries – including both Belgium and Switzerland – so the decision seems an odd one. We’ll update with any further information as we get it.
Back in the U.S., a plan to provide every student in a school district with an iPad has been suspended and appears likely to be abandoned.
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It was discontinued. But a new service will be released in September.
Good to hear – do you have a source for the info?
https://twitter.com/ICTS_KULeuven/status/491829117566722049 The tweet is in Dutch but it says that a new alternative will be available in september. Tweet is from the IT department of the KULeuven
Thanks
This is such a bummer. The AOC discount was indeed better than the regular Edu discount Apple offers. I have had my white Macbook for 5 years now and while it’s still going strong, (I did replace the HDD with an SSD and added more RAM though) I would have liked to buy a new Macbook Air with the AOC discount.
I can’t grasp why Apple would want to do this in just Belgium and Switzerland. There must be a reason, if anyone could shed some light on that… that’d be great.
Why does the response say “obviously?”
Kind of rude.
Since there aren’t any Apple Stores in Belgium, the discount was only available if you ordered your MacBook online. There is an Apple Premium Reseller in Belgium, Switch, which offers new students a discount of 10 percent on Macs and iPads. I bought my Retina MacBook Pro there two years ago.
It still seems a rather odd and disappointing measure..
Indeed, no Apple Stores.
Every (significantly large) neighbouring country of Belgium has three or more (NL: 3, FR: 17, UK: 37, DE: 13). One Apple Store in nicely geographically central Brussels (and self-proclaimed Europe’s capital) would reduce the driving distance from hundreds of kilometers to tens of kilometers for most Belgians who desire direct support. Is Belgium not a strategical location for a single store?