If you were hoping to spend some cash on the Apple online store this morning, you’re going to have to wait a little while. It’s just gone down ahead of today’s press event in Cupertino, and when it comes back up, we expect it to be populated by at least two new iPhones, and possibly new iPods and a new Apple TV as well.
Apple has today kicked off its annual Back to School promotion through the Apple online store. As it did in 2012, the Cupertino company is offering a $100 App Store gift card with every new Mac, or a $50 card with a new iPad.
This year’s promotion also includes the iPhone, which now comes with a $50 gift card, too.
Apple has stopped advertising 24-hour dispatch for products sold through some international online stores. Many of the Cupertino company’s popular products offered 24-hour dispatch providing they were in stock, but in some markets that’s now been increased to 1-2 business days.
The Apple online store went down for just over four hours earlier today, and it came back with Apple’s new Father’s Day promotion and a few noticeable design changes.
The Cupertino company is again heavily promoting the iPad and the iPad mini, but the iPhone 5 also gets a lot of room on the store’s homepage.
Apple has stopped selling the Mac Pro through its European online stores ahead of the machine’s discontinuation throughout the EU on March 1. Although the high-end desktop still appears on Apple’s website, it’s listed as “currently unavailable,” and customers are unable to order it. Some models are still available in the refurbished section, however.
When Apple began accepting pre-orders for the iPad mini at 12 a.m. Pacific, I visited the store a few times to see how quickly it sold out. I didn’t buy one; I have a third-generation iPad and decided I don’t need another one. But I was curious.
To my surprise, at 12:03 a.m. Pacific, the white iPad mini had already sold out in the United Kingdom. Only the black model was available for November 2 delivery. And just over ten minutes later, it was a similar story for Apple’s U.S. online store.
Apple is finally preparing high resolution graphics for its online store to accommodate the Retina displays on the new iPad and the next-generation MacBook Pro. Although the Cupertino company has already overhauled most of its website, the online store still includes plenty of old graphics that appear fuzzy on its latest devices. But not for long.
It’s been just three weeks since Apple issued refreshes to its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, and already they’re on sale at Best Buy, with up to $140 off the MSRP. That means you can pick up the base model MacBook Pro with Retina display — with a 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD — for $2,089.
https://youtu.be/B9qCLs8txBo
The Apple online store went down for just under seven hours this morning, and many of us were hoping that it would reappear with new the MacBook Pro in tow. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but there was one new product: the Nest Learning Thermostat that was invented by former Apple engineer and the “father of the iPod” Tony Fadell.
Apple’s online store delivers one of the most satisfying online retail experiences out there. According to customer experience researchers at ForeSee, only one company delivered a better experience than Apple – Amazon. ForeSee also said that Apple (and Amazon) had achieved what it refers to as “the threshold of excellence.”
