Apple Offers More Mac Discounts Before Christmas

Updated Nov 29: article was originally posted Nov 26.

Apple’s pricing strategy has always felt stable – the products are more expensive than similar devices in the same category, but many feel the premium is worth paying. While other manufacturers may discount their products, Apple’s pricing was consistent, which makes Apple’s decision to offer discounts on the MacBook Pro a very unusual one. They might not be promoting it heavily on the front pages of the Apple Store, but there are options depending on what you are looking for.

Update: Tuesday 29 Nov: Apple is not the only place where the turnover of MacBook Pro laptops is being accelerated with special holiday deals. It’s noticeable just how many of the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models saw discounts being applied over the course of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro has discounts of up to $400 depending on the model and specifications; B&H offering the 1TB 10 Core M1 Pro model for $2099 is one of the most generous. A similarly specced16-inch MacBook Pro model could be found on Amazon for $2299, a similar $400 discount. Curiously the larger discounts are for Space Gray rather than Silver models; presumably there are more Space Gray machines in stock that need to be sold, suggesting the product color mix needs to be tweaked.

Even the latest consumer laptops, the MacBook Air M2 and the still inexplicable 13-inch variant of the MacBook Pro, have picked up multiple offers from retailers; Amazon and Best Buy offering the higher specced MacBook Air M2 with a $150 discount and the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2 also offered with $150 discount, taking it to $1149.

Retailers have a much wider scope in terms of discounting – unlike Apple which does its best to maintain the mystique and allure of the MacBook platform on its website by not sullying the Store pages with trivialities such as ‘discounts’. Outside of Cupertino, that’s not the case. The economy is not in the best of health, and consumers are looking for a bargain.

And if buyers would rather go to the source and buy from Apple, they should take some time to explore their options with Apple itself. Although careful consideration needs to be made on which MacBook to go for, there are some attractive choices in the Apple Store, depending on the balance you need between power, productivity, and price.

If you are looking for a great day-to-day MacBook, it’s hard to look beyond the MacBook Air. 2020’s MacBook Air M1 is still available at $999 from the Apple Store. The Air’s capability will serve a general audience thanks to Apple Silicon.

This leaves the 14-inch and 16-inch “professional” MacBook Pro laptops to go for if you need the power. And that power will be more evident in the M2 Pro and M2 Max variants of the MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, while the geekerati were expecting them to arrive in October, Apple had other ideas and made the shock decision to delay the laptops until at least the first calendar quarter of 2023.

What to do about MacBook Pro sales in the final quarter of the year? Apple had made another decision… to quietly offer discounts until the new macOS laptops go on sale.

While Apple does not have the same zeal in promoting discounts for Black Friday, there have been several moves that show the company working harder than normal to keep turnover on the MacBook platform as high as possible.

One of those is in the retail space, with small enterprise customers being offered discounts of up to ten percent on the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. Those who need to move up to the professional MacBook Pro models may have been waiting for the M2-equipped models over the summer. Still, Apple would like you to keep buying the older M1 model that will shortly be superseded.

While there may not be any visible discounts for consumers, those looking for a better offer on Apple’s website know to head to the refurbished section of the store (although you might be quicker using a search engine for the link, Apple doesn’t make it easy to spot in the user interface). Here you’ll find the same larger MacBook Pro models with discounts of up to twenty percent.

Given the refurb MacBooks generally have a ten percent discount (all backed up by the same warranty and options for AppleCare as a brand new machine.), that’s an extra discount for consumers looking at the larger MacBook Pro laptops.

The mystique around Apple extended to its pricing, and browsing through the Apple Store shows very little out of the ordinary. Yet just below the surface, Tim Cook and his team are quietly offering more discounts to boost MacBook sales during the last quarter of the year. In other years, this would be the role of a new release; with the delay to the M2 Pro and M2 Max variants of the MacBook Pro, Apple has decided to lean more into the brave new world of offering discounts.

If you want as much power as possible, you’ll have to wait for the M2 family. If you need a lot of performance right now, then you’ll be looking at the M1 choices, with the added temptation of those discounts. Apple has made its decision. Now you have to make yours.

Now read the latest MacBook, iPhone, and iPad stories in Forbes’ weekly Apple Loop digest…