Apple offers a lower-spec MacBook Air to educational institutions

11 February, 2012 - Paul Dixon
13 MacBook Air

Educational institutions looking to buy Apple notebooks for their staff and students are now being offered a lower-specification 13-inch MacBook Air, instead of the white plastic MacBook – which hasn’t been available to consumer customers since July 2011.

According to MacRumors, the new education-only 13-inch MacBook Air has the same specifications as the cheapest consumer 11-inch MacBook Air: 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, Intel HD Graphics 3000, 2GB of RAM, and 64GB flash storage.

Priced at $999, the education model is $300 less than the cheapest consumer 13-inch MacBook Air, which has a slightly faster 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, and twice as much RAM (4GB) and storage (128GB).

Educational institutions can purchase the new model in ten or twenty ‘Mobile Labs’ bundles, which include a special cart for storing and charging the machines, and are priced at $11,399 and $21,599 respectively.

Alternatively, as noted by 9to5Mac, Apple also offers six different ‘MacBook Air 5-Pack Bundles’:

  • $4645 (or $929 each): MacBook Air 11.6 inch, 1.6 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD
  • $5560 (or $1112 each): MacBook Air 11.6 inch, 1.6 GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, AppleCare
  • $5645 (or $1129 each): MacBook Air 11.6 inch, 1.6 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD
  • $6550 (or $1312 each): MacBook Air 11.6 inch, 1.6 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, AppleCare
  • $6145 (or $1229 each): MacBook Air 13.3 inch, 1.7 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD
  • $7060 (or $1312 each): MacBook Air 13.3 inch, 1.7 GHz processor, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, AppleCare

Visit Apple’s website for more information about their education solutions.

About the author

Paul Dixon is the owner of Macsessed. He lives in Lancashire in the UK where he works as a web designer. You can find him on and Twitter.