Apple Inc. announced its annual back-to-school promotion today, although some students are still in classes for the current school year.  The promotion runs from now through September 15th and offers students, teachers and staff members rebates of  $299 applied toward the purchase of an iPod Touch or $199 applied toward the purchase of an iPod Nano when purchased along with a MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, 20-inch iMac, 24-inch iMac or Mac Pro.

Analysts predicted that this promotion and rebates offer would drive MacBook sales and iTouch sales, as well as even the iPhone due to some of the cross-functionality and the huge popularity of the Apple devices.

The lowest-priced 8GB iPod Touch retails for US$299, with the 16GB version retailing for $399 and the 32GB version retailing for $499. The 8GB iPod Nano retails for US$199. Student and educator discounts are also offered for any Mac purchase during the promotion, which range from $100 on the entry-level MacBook to $230 on a loaded MacBook Air.

A potential drawback to the iPod Touch promo may be the fee that Apple has said it will charge iPod Touch users when the firmware is upgraded to Version 2.0.  Apple says the fee is necessary due to the addition of third-party applications and synching with Microsoft’s Exchange server, neither of which generate any revenue for the company, and the company must recoup at least some of its costs. The price of the upgrade has not been revealed, but previously when Apple released a major update for the iPhone and the iPod Touch the charge was US$19.99.

Perhaps Apple will find a creative way to roll in the firmware upgrade to the prices, since not all of the devices will be purchased before the upgrade occurs.