Apple Is Offering A $50 Gift Card With Apple TV 4K & HD Purchases

Apple is throwing in a $50 gift card in with every purchase of an Apple TV 4K or an Apple TV HD in the U.S. Apple TV is Apple’s smart TV box that was originally announced in 2007. However, the extravagant $299 pricing meant that the device never really caught on and the company had to drastically reduce the price of the next-gen Apple TV box to be competitive. The latest version is the second-generation Apple TV 4K that was announced last year. However, Apple also continues to sell the Apple TV HD from 2015. Both devices run tvOS 15 and is slated to get the tvOS 16 update later this year.

Apple is also expected to release new Apple TV hardware later this year. According to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman, the new Apple TV is in development “with an A14 chip and an additional gigabyte of RAM.” The stronger hardware is reportedly aimed at making the device more capable of gaming and should work well with the new gaming-centric features of tvOS 16. TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also believes that Apple is planning to release a cheaper version of its Apple TV hardware soon. According to Kuo, the new version of the Apple TV that “improves cost structure” will be launched in the second half of this year.

ALSO READ: Tesla Enhanced Autopilot Vs. Full Self-Driving: Differences Explained

Apple is offering a $50 gift card with Apple TV purchases in the U.S. The promotion is live from July 1 to July 14 but is only applicable for purchases through Apple’s official online store. Everybody is eligible to take advantage of the offer, but there’s a limit of two units per account. The offer is valid on both the 32GB and 64GB variants of the Apple TV 4K, as well as the 32GB version of the Apple TV HD.

Apple TV Remains Expensive Despite The Offer

While the Apple TV HD (32GB) retails for $149, the 4K version costs $179 for the 32GB version and $199 for the 64GB variant. These are significantly more expensive than competing products like Chromecast with Google TV, Amazon’s Fire TV and Roku, all of which start at below $50. While the new gift card makes the extravagant pricing a bit more bearable, the Apple TV hardware still remains one of the most expensive offerings in its segment.

ALSO READ: Steve Jobs To Posthumously Receive Presidential Medal Of Freedom

Apple is currently offering back-to-school discounts on MacBooks and iPads as part of its yearly promo offers for students and educators. As parts of the plan, eligible individuals will receive a $15o gift card with a purchase of a Mac and a $100 gift card with a purchase of an iPad. That’s on top of the already hefty discounts that Apple offers with its education pricing. However, the company doesn’t normally offer promos or discounts on its Apple TV hardware, which suggests that this might be an attempt to get rid of the existing stock before the new model(s) drop in the coming months.