Apple announced on Tuesday a new iMac that will only be made available to educational institutions.

At $1,099, it will enable schools to save $100 compared to the commercially available version of the desktop computer, which retails for $1,299.

The iMac will sport a 21.5-inch screen, 4GB RAM, a 3.3 Ghz dual-core i3 processor and 500GB of storage space. It will run OS X Lion, meaning the computer is likely to come bundled with the current version of iLife, which includes iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand.

Apple has not commented on how long the new iMac has been available for purchase, but it seems to be a recent development. Reliable industry blog MacRumors points out that the computer replaces a $999 iMac that debuted only a year and a half ago and that had also been available only to educational institutions.

The new desktop does not necessarily reflect an act of altruism on Apple's part.

A story published on ZDNet states that in order to qualify for the promotional offer, educational institutions need to procure their iMacs in bulk - at least ten at a time.

This perhaps explains why the computer is only available directly from Apple to the school looking to procure it. Unlike previous offerings, students and educators will not be able to procure this iMac on an individual basis.

Further, the school Mac will lack some of the core functionality available on the mass-market version. Namely, there is no Bluetooth connectivity and the Thunderbolt port is conspicuously missing.

As ZDNet argues however, the iMac is still a good investment. Though it's a stretch to call it "a Mac that performs like a PC," the computer is still a robust machine, and at the very least, it will expose students to OS X, which they'll likely encounter at some point in their professional careers.