The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

Apple is offering iPad bulk discounts to educational institutions. Sadly, the discounts are so small as to make commenters on some sites use the "g" word (greed).

The discounts on the ten packs amount to $20 apiece. As a sort of "green incentive" unrelated to dollars, Apple reduces packaging by eliminating separate retail packaging for the devices, as well as shipping with only one set of documentation. It makes one wonder how much of a discount this really is, as the savings Apple gets on shipping and packaging might mean they even make a profit on this.

Currently, only Wi-Fi iPad models (priced at retail $499 / $599 / $699 for 16GB / 32GB / 64GB) are available for order through the program. If AppleCare is ordered along with the iPads the discounts doubles (whoa!) to $40 / iPad.

• BF822LL/A: iPad Wi-Fi (16GB) $4,790
• BF825LL/A: iPad Wi-Fi (16GB) with AppleCare Protection Plan for iPad - Auto Enroll $5,580
• BF823LL/A: iPad Wi-Fi (32GB) $5,790
• BF826LL/A: iPad Wi-Fi (32GB) with AppleCare Protection Plan for iPad - Auto Enroll $6,580
• BF824LL/A: iPad Wi-Fi (64GB) $6,790
• BF827LL/A: iPad Wi-Fi (64GB) with AppleCare Protection Plan for iPad - Auto Enroll $7,580

While a discount is a discount, it's clear that Apple could discount far further than 4 percent on the 16GB model. Tiny discounts like that are why people buy from sites like Amazon.com; for high sales tax states like California, even if the price is identical, the sales tax savings alone is a much better deal.