[Leica] Mac discounts

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

Sonny wrote:

"Yeah it has something to do with Apple (and Dell) giving stuff to the

Universities.  The student package discounts are not all that great. You can

often do just about as well at an Apple (or Dell) Store.


The only advantage for us was that Eric's Mac was packaged with all the

software he was going to need as a music major at his University.


Of couse, times change, and now, in the middle of his second year, all the

music Profs accept assignments on mp3. Go figure.


I work at a University too, and sometimes I can do pretty good with the

discounts, sometimes not.  Dell sells other stuff, besides laptops and

computers, ya know.


I also have a connection through IBM to Lenovo, and I was able to beat the

professional discount by seventy dollars using a coupon code from Fat

Wallet."


 - - - - -


Some background information. After Apple's 1984 superbowl commercial. the
company started the Apple University Consortium designed to get Mac
computers into the hands of students. The catch is that the students and
faculty had to pay the full price of a 128K Mac up front by certified check,
$2500 as I recall. With the money in hand, Apple started up the production
line. The computers were delivered about three months later. Apple obviously
modeled its approach after Hitler's method of selling Volkswagens prior to
WW2. Pay up front  and then wait.


At the time I was chairman of the computer committee of our university. In
order to convince me of the merits of the Mac, Apple lent me a Lisa computer
which ran the Mac's software. The Lisa sits on the desk behind me in this
1985 photo. No comments about the fact that I needed to lose weight.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Larry+Z/Me+in+my+office+at+CUNY.jpg.html

The hanging on the wall is an imitation Jackson Pollack done by my wife. If
I could have passed it off as a real one I could afford a dozen M9s, each
with a Noctilux. Anyway I was convinced that Macs were a good idea. At the
time Bill Gates was claiming that 640K memory was all one would ever need
and IBM was touting its own brand of software. We joined the Consortium.
Bribery works.


To prevent a wholesale invasion by California based Apple, IBM, a local New
York company, gave a grant to the university offering $500 to each grad
student for a computer purchase. Naturally they expected the students to buy
real computers, i.e. IBM PCs. To the surprise of everyone, including me, 3
out of 4 opted for Macs. MACS WERE COOL. IBMs were for accountants. But it
could have been a software issue as well. Macs had a true graphical
interface from day one while PCs were still burdened with a command line
interface. Windows was a distant gleam in Microsoft's eye. Also remember
that Word and Excel were originally crafted for Macs. Statview and Data
Desk, two sophisticated but easy to use statistics programs were also
created for the Mac. Finally, the NIH Image program, one of the first really
capable image manipulation programs was free for the downloading from the
Nat. Institute of Health. The software that was available ideally suited the
needs of grad students.


The $100 to $200 Mac discounts are trivial considering the price of the
computer. But if you really want one they are easy to get if you are
connected in any way with a school. Even a grandchild attending kindergarten
qualifies you.


Larry Z