Apple's 2026 Back to School Offer Expected to Begin by Next Week

Looks like real BTS began a week ago when Tim Cook pre-announced the price increases. That 15% to 20% off promo is now over today.

I am surprised they didn't start this today to cover the bad press

Kids will academically and tangibly learn the impact of AI, supply/demand, and inflation very early on.

Unfortunately this is what I always feared entering the Apple realm back in 2019. Apple would spike prices or my financial situation would change and I’d be either priced out or priced painfully but have all my data and work stuck in Apple ecosystem. I kept one foot out. Now head we are. The issue isn’t just the initial upfront cost. If you could afford a mbp6 base before you may still be able to afford it but can you afford to replace it? Bc everything is soldered on you can’t repair much of it so any break and you are out $3k minimum.

As it is I’m likely going to pursue a hybrid of things and not Apple. I’ll use the saving to buy battery packs I guess. 💀. This makes me sad. I love the MacBook but I’m not going to keep spending on them.

I’m feeling pretty lucky I ordered my MBP when I did. Between the looming threat of a price hike and how late the BTS offer was taking to materialize I figured I would order on Tuesday and if a better deal becomes available I could cancel and reorder in the 5 to 6 week time frame they said it would take for the machine to ship. Now we’re sitting here and my laptop is already being built and I saved $1800 over what my spec would cost today.

Thanks for your contribution to the thread. We are all super stoked that you saved $1800 and that you risked a price increase but we’re able to avoid it by merely being fortunate.

I’m sure that your being lucky and having the capital in hand to buy at the former prices will make the other readers of this thread feel so much happier about the price rises they will suffer.

Thanks for sharing your tale.

I can’t afford to go back to school with these prices.