Apple on Tuesday officially launched its back-to-school promotion, offering students and teachers an iPod Touch or iPod Nano with the purchase of a Mac computer.

In addition, Apple offers educators and students discounts that start at $100 for the purchase of a baseline MacBook to $230 for the company's lightest notebook, the MacBook Air. For the iMac desktop, Apple is offering a discount of $140.

Under the iPod Touch and Nano promotion, customers would first buy a Mac and the 8-GB model of either digital media player and get up to a $299 rebate. The 8-GB iPod Touch sells for $299 on the Apple store, and the same capacity Nano sells for $199.

Buyers can apply for the rebate online but would have to submit their claims by Oct. 15. The promotion only applies to purchases made before Sept. 15.

The education market remains one of Apple's strongest market segments, along with graphics professionals. Over the last couple of years, however, the company has become one of the largest suppliers of consumer PCs in the United States.

Apple also has been aggressively branching out into the area of digital entertainment since the release of the iPod player in 2001. In a recent report, Forrester Research predicted Apple over the next five years will focus much of its resources on becoming the supplier of hardware, software, and installation services for delivering digital entertainment to every room in a home.

By 2013, Apple is expected to reinvent itself as a digital home provider, building its offerings around the Macintosh computer, a home server, a universal music controller, a network-enabled "clock radio" and digital photo frame, and a more capable Apple TV, Forrester said. In addition to products, Apple is expected to provide in-home services to help consumers deal with the technical complexity of a networked home.