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Comment by Detrytus | Hacker News Reader

What about university students? They also start their classes in September, and while they have no "budgeting deadline", they still need to buy some computer around that time.

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> What about university students?

interestingly, i have a teen that will be heading off to college in a couple years. My plan is to send him off to the dorm with a Macbook and not his gaming rig heh. Although, inevitably, it will be up to him to decide how to make the best use of his time..

Isn't it up to him to bring his gaming rig?

Not the original commenter, but if I was that parent, I’d explain to my kid the amount of money I would be contributing towards their education and expenses if they bring it…and if the don’t bring it. They can make the educated choice then.

And they'll take it and make friends and get jobs from those associations with more value than the degree itself.

Not trying to sway you, just thinking about common outcomes!

That seems to me to be the least likely outcome of that decision.

A common outcome would seem to be a year spent bombing in their classes because they can’t separate themselves from some stupid game to study while accumulating $10-20k in student debt.

One of my first jobs was working for my university while attending. We had a small student lead team of people that did IT work for other students, and faculty. We'd fix or at least attempt to fix any software issue or hardware issue that we feasibly could with the tools we had available.

In my unsolicited advice, I recommend your son take both devices. I'll spare you my countless war stories, but I can confidently say I have seen many students up a creek without a paddle at some of the most unfortunate times.

I think Apple has historically used the college student market to clear out their remaining stock of last year’s MacBooks. Otherwise why release the new models just after classes have started?

I agree with that - 'back to school sale' sounds a lot better than 'end of line clearance'.

Considering a base MBA M4 can be had for $899 (and it's a monster) and a base MBP is about 80% more, I can’t imagine the bulk of freshman buyers who have so many things to buy just to go to university for their first year would opt to spend an extra $650 on an MPB.

As someone who's worked at a (small) university for a decade and a half, IME most of the ones who get Mac laptops get the Air. This has been especially true since the Apple Silicon transition, as the chip in the Air is still damn good.

I think you might be surprised at the extent to which iPad sales cannibalize MacBook sales in the current crop of undergrads, especially ones who don't anticipate having to write papers or code. An iPad Air will do everything many college students need at half the price and size and weight, and it can have a pen, which the MacBook can't. When you do get a surprise assignment that the iPad can't do, there are always lab computers, and many universities will loan out laptops upon request.

What kind of university degree doesn’t require writing?

Anecdotally, I got my MBP as a graduation present when I graduated high school and was heading off to college many years ago.

So I got it in ~May, when my college program started in September.

Nothing changes about them, as (previously) new Apple MacBooks weren't available until October, more than a month after their classes start.

But the argument here was that one month delay was not ideal, but acceptable, but a longer delay will have more severe effect on demand.

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