Apple “Back to School” Promotion for 2014 Now Running for Students

College students interested in buying a Mac, iPad, or iPhone now have an added incentive to make the purchase before the 2014 school year begins, thanks to Apple’s annual “Back to School” promotion.

This year, Apple is offering a $100 Apple Store Gift Card with the purchase of a Mac, and a $50 gift card with the purchase of an iPhone or iPad. Additionally, students will receive the standard educational discount on the qualifying purchases, which is usually in the realm of $100 off for a Mac computer, and $30 discounted from an iPad, while the iPhone is not discounted. The promotion runs from July 1, 2014, through September 9, 2014. Current model Macs and iPads are rarely discounted much by Apple or resellers, making the Back to School promo a reasonably good deal for students to take advantage of.

Apple’s web site for the promotion details the specifics and qualifications here, which appear to be limited to US students enrolled in a college or university, and making purchases through their respective campus stores, the online education store from Apple, or in an Apple Store location.

The addition of an Apple Store Gift Card to the Back to School promotion is a fairly new change, for years Apple offered a free iPod with the purchase of a Mac instead. Later, the iPod was swapped out for an App Store Gift Card, which now appears to be a more generalized Apple Store Gift Card. Which is more useful is really debatable depending on your personal usage.

On a more speculative note, the Back to School promotion typically ends near the start of the fall release schedule of new hardware from Apple. Currently, Apple has a very active year-end launch schedule expected, with the bigger screen iPhone 6 models, an updated iPad lineup, new Mac hardware, OS X Yosemite, iOS 8, and the iWatch, all due for launch at the latter part of the year.