Apple just added the Apple Watch to its education store in ten Asia-Pacific countries, MacRumors reported. Students and teachers in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam can now buy the Series 11, SE, or Ultra 3 at a discount through UNiDAYS verification.
The geographic selectivity here is the story. Apple’s had education pricing on Macs and iPads for years, globally. But Watch discounts? That’s been off the table everywhere until now. And the company chose to launch this in markets where it’s been pushing hard for the past decade—APAC countries where the middle class is growing and where a $50-100 discount on a Watch might actually move units among students who’d otherwise skip it. In the U.S. and Europe, where Apple Watch already has strong market share, the education pricing lever apparently doesn’t need pulling yet.
The UNiDAYS rollout in Australia and Hong Kong is also worth noting. Apple’s been using UNiDAYS verification in the U.S. since 2019, but plenty of other markets still rely on in-store ID checks or honor-system online forms. Expanding automated verification means Apple expects volume here—enough that manual spot-checks would be a waste of time. It’s a small operational tell about where Apple thinks the growth is.
What’s conspicuously absent is any education pricing on AirPods, which would seem like the more obvious student product. AirPods are cheaper, more universally useful, and easier to lose—exactly the kind of thing a discount would help sell. But Apple’s keeping those at full price while discounting the Watch, which suggests the margins and strategy around wearables are different. The Watch is a platform play; AirPods are an accessory. One gets you into the ecosystem, the other just makes it nicer.
For now, U.S. students are still paying full freight on Watches while their counterparts in Taipei and Seoul get a break. That’s a choice.
Reporting reference: MacRumors ↗