Apple Announces "School Night At The Apple Store," Offers Fund Raising Opportunity For Schools

by , 5:30 PM EST, January 23rd, 2003

Apple has announced a new education program at some of the company's Apple Store retail locations across the country. The new program is being dubbed "School Night at the Apple Store," and is designed to give local schools a place to hold special events.

The program is being kicked off next Wednesday night, on January 29th, at seven Apple Store locations around the country. Apple will provide participants in these events with promotional posters and invitations, and the company is including a school fund raising aspect to the events, as well. The company will give participants of these events a US$50 discount off new Macs, and will then "credit" the participant's school with an additional US$50 towards the purchase of Apple products. From the company's Web page for the new service:

Sign up now to have Apple host a special event at your local Apple Store to showcase the great work your students and teachers are creating using Apple technology.

Celebrate student achievement
"School Night at the Apple Store" is a program specially designed for K-12 schools to celebrate achievement. This is a great opportunity for your students and teachers to share what they've created using Apple technology. All you need to do is sign up for a night and invite parents, teachers, and students to participate. The Apple Store will partner with you to facilitate the event. Throughout the night, Mac Specialists are available to answer questions.

We'll provide you with invitations, posters, and other materials to help make your event a success. When you register, it's important to identify an "event champion" in your school who can gather and present your school's content, help distribute parent and teacher invitations, and act as the key contact for the Apple Store manager.

Raise money for your school
At your event, parents and teachers from your school can save $50 on their purchase of any Apple computer. For every computer they buy, Apple will also credit $50 toward your school's purchase of Apple products.

Apple is kicking off the first School Night at the Apple Store at the following locations:

Where: The following Apple retail stores will host a School Night kick-off event on Wednesday, January 29 from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: CambridgeSide (Cambridge, MA), Lenox Square (Atlanta, GA), Palo Alto (Palo Alto, CA), Pasadena (Pasadena, CA), SoHo (New York, NY), Tysons Corner (McLean, VA), and Woodfield (Schaumburg, IL).

If you would like information on these specific stores, check out Apple's retail Web page for more information. You can find more information on the new program at the School Night at the Apple Store Web page.

The Mac Observer Spin:

This is a very interesting, and grass-roots approach for Apple. It offers a way for a "school" to participate at an event at the Apple Store, even if it is just a small group of Mac users within a school. The company is not only offering Mac schools a place to host events, it is also offering Mac users within Wintel-based schools a place from which to stage their efforts to bring more Macs into their schools. How many Wintel-based schools don't have pockets of teachers who wish to go back to using Macs?

At the same time, Apple is clearly trying to tap into more sales, and it's a win-win situation for everyone concerned. Participants get a discount, Apple gets new sales, and schools find themselves with credit for Apple products. What school is going to turn down free, or discounted, software or hardware when it is available? For schools that are dominated by Macs, this could mean a substantial buildup up credit to add to their Mac stable. For Wintel-based schools, it offers a nice back-door way in to getting a Mac, or maybe PowerSchool, into that school. Apple wins, the participants win, and the schools win. The only thing that would make it better would be for Apple to raise either the credits or the discount for participants in the event, but we think this is a great start.

As part of Apple's evolving education strategy, we think School Night at the Apple Store is a good addition. We the company continues to work on new and innovative ways to win more of the education market.

School Night at the Apple Store