Apple has launched its 2022 back-to-school sales in the US, and this year you get a free gift card with the purchase of select Apple technology: Mac, iPad and… Apple TV. The first two are standard for Apple promotions from years past, but the Apple TV is a strange outlier. But perhaps it makes more sense when you remember the reports that Apple plans to release a new Apple TV 4K (2022).
In the case of Apple TV 4K, you get a €50 gift card when you buy one right now. The way the deal works is that you add the product to your cart, where it's $50 off, but a $50 gift card is also added to your cart.
• Vea el Apple TV 4K in Apple Store aquí (opens in a new tab)
Apple has yet to launch its back-to-school sales globally, so we don't know if it will affect other countries as well.
Apple's school deals typically focus on productivity and music; in the past, you've gotten free AirPods with Mac and iPad purchases. The Apple TV is a strange addition in that regard: if Apple just wanted to help keep students entertained, we could expect an offer that would get you a gift card with the HomePod mini.
But perhaps Apple is hoping this deal will help clear out stocks of the current Apple TV 4K (2021) before the new model arrives. It certainly makes more sense for Apple to suddenly decide that the Apple TV is a student essential. There have been some major Apple TV discounts recently at other stores, bigger than you might expect for this type of Apple product.
What do we expect from the new Apple TV?
There are two big rumors about the direction of the next Apple TV, and it's hard to say which direction Apple will go. The first (and perhaps the most likely, since it's the simplest story) is that Apple will package the new Apple TV with an improved processor and more memory, which suggests we shouldn't expect much of a design or price change.
But it's also been suggested that Apple will release a cheaper version, and we really think it's time Apple offered up a cheap streaming stick to take on the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max.
Either way, we're expecting another new version of the Siri Remote, based on a hidden code discovered in iOS 16 that heavily suggests an existing one.
There's also no consensus that Apple will actually launch it in 2022 (alongside expected big products like the iPhone 14 and AirPods Pro 2), or launch it in spring 2023 (the latest Apple TV launching in spring 2021).
Maybe it's none. Maybe Apple really thinks the Apple TV should be a back-to-school staple these days. Time will tell.