Fredonia loses Apple product sales

If you are looking to go into the campus bookstore for an iPod, then you are going to be out of luck. Last month, Fredonia pulled all Apple products from campus store shelves as a result of a change in Apple Inc, college agreements.

Christopher Zenns, SUNY Fredonia's director of retail operations, said the campus was no longer able to comply with Apple's increasingly strict reseller policy. Zenns said students will still have the opportunity to purchase electronic items from a variety of brands.

Up until last March, the bookstore had supplied students with Apple notebooks, desktops, iPods and various Apple accessories at discounted prices.

Zenns said students will now have to look elsewhere to purchase Apple products. "Students can still buy Apple products at academic prices, but basically they'll have to go to Apple to buy them," he said.

Some students believe little will change now that Apple products are no longer being sold.

"Whether they sell it or not I don't think its going to effect me personally," said junior exercise science major Nick Cumbo, "but being an art school I can see a lot of students being upset. It's definitely the number one product being used on campus. The HP and Dells are good computers as well so it's not like they aren't selling anything to students, so it's not so bad."

Due to the small size of the campus, SUNY Fredonia was unable to meet Apple's required amount of sales, according to Zenns. Since students rely on a variety of different suppliers, the percentage of students who chose Apple was not enough to help the school meet Apple's new requirements. Zenns said many smaller colleges are beginning to lose the ability to sell Apple products. He said it is likely that the sale of Apple products will be limited to large universities.

Many students had no idea that Fredonia had stopped selling all Apple Products. "I wasn't even aware of that change," said junior communication major Zhuojun Fu.

As far as the products that will be replacing Apple, Zenns confirmed that Hewlett-Packard computers and other merchandise will remain available. The campus has also been in contact with Dell and, while it has not been confirmed, there is a good chance their products will soon be available in the bookstore.