Buying a Macbook? Get hold of a student in the US

Buying a Macbook? Get hold of a student in the US

Rohan Naravane, Jun 10, 2010 1716 hrs IST

The discounts, I tell you, are friggin' crazy!

My mom wanted to buy a Macbook Pro recently. In India, a 13-inch MBP sells for Rs. 73,000. We were looking if we could find it someplace cheaper. Co-incidentally, my cousin was returning from the US after finishing his studies. We came across a "Back to school" offer at the Apple US website, which is on-going from May 25 to September 7 2010. There we saw, what would be, one of the most SWEETEST deals one could ever get!

Check this out: If you're a student in the US, you get USD 100 (Rs. 4,703) off on the 13-inch MBP. Not just that, you also get an iPod Touch 8GB free! That's a 200 dollar value by itself. If that wasn't enough, Macbooks sell for a lot cheaper there than they do in India. So, in the end we got the Macbook Pro 13-inch for USD 1099 (Rs. 51,686). That itself is a saving of more than Rs. 20,000 (when compared to purchasing it from India). But wait, the iPod touch 8GB costs around Rs. 10,000. So, the effective discount we got was for over Rs. 30,000! Friggin' insane, ain't it?

Macbook's have International warranty, so you can get it serviced from the local centre, should anything go wrong. Plus, you can legally get one laptop by flight without paying for any duty. So, the deal is legit and totally worth it. Trust me, we did it. Isn't it kinda funny how in American movies, sometimes they show college students trying to ask their seniors to get them alcohol? Well, if you want a Macbook for cheap, get hold of a college student in the US. I'm sure many of you know one, considering the number of Indians going there for further education.

Update: I came across an online ad about student discounts for Apple products in India. After filling out an online form, I got the number of a local Apple store here in Mumbai. After inquiring with them, they said students in India get the 13-inch Macbook Pro for Rs. 68,526. No free iPod Touch here. So, that's just a saving of Rs. 4500 -- not bad. But compare that to Rs. 30,000. Pathetic.

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(5) Comments

Delhite

,New Delhi, on Jun 11, 2010 01:53 AM

Rohan, this back to school discount is also available in Europe. I got my 17" MBP from Germany and although I didn't get that huge of a discount in price (as price in Europe and India are quite similar, I got a free iPod Touch (opted for the 16GB so had to pay a little extra) and a carrying bag from Tucano for free (One can opt for a 25 euro discount if one doesn't need the bag).

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nik

,mum, on Jun 17, 2010 12:32 PM

wowie!!! But Seriously Rohan...ur mother really needs a Macbook Pro? not a simple Macbook? Or is it that you just convinced her of it u rascal!! Wink!

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Kshitiz Gupta

,Jaipur, on Jun 14, 2010 05:47 PM

Hi.Nice article.Can we not bring an iphone(4G) may be the same way???

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Darshan

,Kharagpur, on Jun 11, 2010 06:54 AM

hi Rohan, I have one small doubt. did your cousin have his own laptop ?

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Rohan

,TechTree, on Jun 11, 2010 11:24 AM

Yes, and he didn't have any problems in bringing both.