Apple UK is to lease iBooks and Powerbooks to students for as little as £7.58 a week. At the end of the lease period, the notebook is offered for sale to the lessee for just fifty quid. Insurance and support is thrown in as part of the deal and Airport WLAN access is an optional extra.

Students can avail themselves of the offers only if the educational establishment to which they belong is a member of iStudent, as the scheme is called.

Apple is fuzzy on prices. The £7.58 a week offer is the only price quoted, and is, we infer, best headline price for combination of lowest spec machine (iBook 12.1in CD-RW) and longest lease terms - options are one, two and three years.

For more prices? Apple says only:

This depends on the equipment you choose. Once your institution has joined the scheme and selected the package most relevant to its needs, your IT co-ordinator or iStudent Campus Representative will be able to advise you of the cost**. Contact your IT department for information about available systems.

More details can be found here. ®