Apple may launch most aggressive Black Friday sale yet

[AppleInsider]

With Black Friday sale information from rival PC vendors beginning to leak online, experts at Barclays Capital say they expect Apple to counter the promotions with a more aggressive than usual one-day sale, offering deep discounts on a number of Mac models.

The Friday immediately following the US Thanksgiving holiday has long been known as "Black Friday," as it represents the unofficial beginning of the holiday shopping season, or the day when retailers hold massive sales in hopes of steering their (red) losses into (black) profits.

Among the most heavily discounted electronics items poised to dominate this year's sales are low cost notebooks, according to analyst Ben Reitzes, who notes that Dell plans to offer $299 linux model via its website, while Wal-Mart markets a $299 Compaq, and Best Buy a $299 eMachines portable.

"We believe ultra-low cost notebooks will be a major draw this Black Friday as vendors look to push volumes and consumers look to trade down given the economic environment," he wrote in a report to clients Wednesday. "We have not seen any Apple Black Friday ads yet (as is customary), but expect the company to be more aggressive than usual in its one-day sale, perhaps with $100 off a few Mac models and discounts on several iPods."

The analyst also called upon Apple to "get more price aggressive in every product" for its traditional one day sale, which will run for 24 hours beginning at midnight on Thursday November 27th. Given obvious weakness in the economy, this should include the iPhone, he said, arguing that "the company’s high margins could likely absorb a few days of discounts."

Reitzes also pointed to signs that French iPhone carrier Orange will cut the 8GB iPhone 3G from 149 euros to 99 euros for the holidays and wonders "if AT&T could follow shortly here in the US."

Apple's participation in the Black Friday bonanza has seen the company hold massive 24-hour sales through its online store and brick-and-mortar retail chain since 2004. The promotions initially began with $100 discounts on the company's iMac G5s but grew to include a $101 discount on the iBook G4 in 2005.

A year later, the Cupertino-based company offered $101 off all MacBook and iMac models, $31 off its updated fifth-generation video iPods and $21 off its second-generation iPod nanos. Last year's sales offered the same $101 discount on MacBooks and iMacs but trimmed the discount on the third-generation iPod nanos to just $11.

A move towards more aggressive pricing for this year's Black Friday sale would build on a trend that began earlier this summer when Apple announced the biggest back-to-school promotion in its history.

Unlike past years when students were offered a free iPod nano worth $199 with the purchase of a qualifying Mac, this year's promotion bumped the incentive up to a $299 iPod touch -- a move helped the company set a new record for single quarter Mac shipments of 2.611 million units.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[pavlos99]

Does anyone know/remember if Apple extends its Black Friday discounts to Canadian stores? I'd love to get my wife an iPhone, but I'm not sure if Apple will also have its products on sale in Toronto...

[echosonic]

BASED. ON. WHAT.

WTF evidence do they have to suggest Apple will do anything of the kind?!

this is a BS plant form top to bottom. They're trying to generate news to pump the stock.

Apple's $100 discount is not only par for the course on black friday, but really not that great a deal, all things considered.

[Object-X]

They need to clear out that inventory for the new redesigned Media mini and SLI iMacs to be announced at MacWorld in January.

[hmurchison]

Are these the same people that proclaimed the $800 Macbook was coming?

Apple isn't in to giving deals. Sure you may get a free iPod Touch ..if you're shelling out $1400.

Hope is eternal isn't it?

[wilma]

Are the BF discounts available for education pricing as well?

[Marvin]

Maybe the new Macbooks will go back to last generation prices.

And stay there.

I wish Black Friday was an international sale too.

[shanmugam]

thanks for the news (this not rumor, it is ongoing event for last few years)

apple last few years always had a special promotion on black friday $100 on some of the consumer products ...

all the customers on subscritption also gets email alert.

it is also international sales, i have seen this in singapore apple store (online as well as B&M)

2007

http://arstechnica.com/journals/appl...iscounts-again

2006

http://www.macrumors.com/2006/11/20/...ksgiving-sale/

2005

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=163507

2004 AI link

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...od_prices.html

[hypercommunist]

pavlos99: I believe that Apple has done this sale in Canada for the last two years. Apple Store Online, and I imagine at the physical Apple Stores as well. Dunno if they'll discount the iPhone, though, as it is sold in partnership with Rogers/Fido...

[stokessd]

Oooohhh like 5% discount...hold me back...

Sheldon

[THT]

Yeah. $100 off a $1500 product isn't very attractive. If it was a 20% discount, I'll think about stampeding to the store. If it was 30%, I'll stampede to the store. If it was 40+%, I'll camp out in front of the store the night before.

$100 is like nothing for Apple's products.

[shanmugam]

Originally Posted by THT

Yeah. $100 off a $1500 product isn't very attractive. If it was a 20% discount, I'll think about stampeding to the store. If it was 30%, I'll stampede to the store. If it was 40+%, I'll camp out in front of the store the night before.

$100 is like nothing for Apple's products.

$1299 alu macbook offered $1199 sounds good to me ... of course if u r in the line for buying a new macbook ...

It will be great if they offer $150 to $200 range this time

[Hoss]

Why doesn't Apple buy WebMD and give the iphone a diagnostic capability?

Then it will be covered by medical insurance for every American

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by stokessd

Oooohhh like 5% discount...hold me back...

Sheldon

Apple's Black friday discounts in the past have been a joke. I just bought an iPod touch - thought I'd wait but then remembered how lame those discounts were. I extremely doubt if they will be anything significant but Apple could surprise us.

[JeffDM]

Originally Posted by hmurchison

Are these the same people that proclaimed the $800 Macbook was coming?

Apple isn't in to giving deals. Sure you may get a free iPod Touch ..if you're shelling out $1400.

This story isn't out of line, except for the part that it might be the most aggressive yet, the figures aren't much different than the past that I recall. It's not even going to be as much as getting a Touch after buying a Mac notebook.

They have been doing BF deals since 2005, maybe earlier.

[min_t]

How about a one time, one day only, recession recognition discount. Macbooks for 899. Both in-store and online sale.

That 100 dollar crap only covers sales tax.

Show some love, Apple.

[ouragan]

The analyst also called upon Apple to "get more price aggressive in every product" for its traditional one day sale, which will run for 24 hours beginning at midnight on Thursday November 27th. Given obvious weakness in the economy, this should include the iPhone, he said, arguing that "the company’s high margins could likely absorb a few days of discounts."

I second that and add that Apple should make the price reduction permanent.

[jpellino]

...Walmart puts a dozen of those doorbusters in each store, and they are gone by 6:15 AM. BestBuy has the lowend model in boxes, you don't handle it or use it - you grab it and go. Apple can't and won't do that - they have to sustain sales over the day and season. If you don't get that crap notebook at Walmart you go to the next store or next model up and get a nearly-crap notebook for $100 or $200 more. You'll be ripped, but you'll still go to Walmart and spend $100 a visit on other nonsense. With Apple if they tick you off they lose you for the foreseeable future. They can't afford that.

[EyeNsteinNo]

Buy a MB and get a $101 discount PLUS a copy of Vista Home... help Microsoft from going down the tube this Holiday season.

Buy a MBP and Get a free dell linux LT PLUS a copy of Vista Ultramite... Help Microsoft from going down the tube this Holiday season and delay Dell from filing Chapter 11 before Christmas (and then their employees won't have to take fridays off without pay, they can buy a iPhone or....)

I'm a PC2...lol

[satchmo]

Buy a Mac mini and get $200 off the new 24" Cinema Display....
..oh wait, the Mac mini doesn't have DisplayPort.

Damn imagine the bundling possibilities with a Mac mini, especially if it were updated.

[THT]

Originally Posted by shanmugam

$1299 alu macbook offered $1199 sounds good to me ... of course if u r in the line for buying a new macbook ...

It will be great if they offer $150 to $200 range this time

I'm in line to get a new MacBook plus 24" external monitor and accessories. I'd want the 2.4 GHz, backlight keyboard version with 4 GB memory. Add it all up, and it's a $2700 expenditure. If it was a 30% savings, I'd stampede to the store.

That's a huge cost for portability. Mind as well get the high end 24" iMac for less.

[gastroboy]

Originally Posted by jpellino

...Walmart puts a dozen of those doorbusters in each store, and they are gone by 6:15 AM. BestBuy has the lowend model in boxes, you don't handle it or use it - you grab it and go. Apple can't and won't do that - they have to sustain sales over the day and season. If you don't get that crap notebook at Walmart you go to the next store or next model up and get a nearly-crap notebook for $100 or $200 more. You'll be ripped, but you'll still go to Walmart and spend $100 a visit on other nonsense. With Apple if they tick you off they lose you for the foreseeable future. They can't afford that.

Apple's always special because mumble, mumble.

They can't possibly do what anyone else does because excuse, excuse.

[Joseph_xxl]

What $100 off of a $1300 laptop? Feets don't fail me now, I'm running not walking to the Apple store

[zanshin]

Originally Posted by gastroboy

Apple's always special because mumble, mumble.

They can't possibly do what anyone else does because excuse, excuse.

I'm pretty sure everyone has had ample opportunity by now to know that Apple has a fairly distinct business model, and it's nothing like WalMart or Best Buy.

[bugsnw]

I'm a big fan of the yearly November sale. I put off our last iMac purchase this year just for this date. Even though if you have a relationship with an Apple Rep, you typically receive discounts that match or beat the typical sales prices.

Looking forward, even Apple is going to have trouble in this economy. I have a feeling that even though this sales event is well attended, the after Xmas sales are going to be even better. Too many people reigning in their spending and preparing for the worst. It's going to add up to misery.

I like the price discounts and the bundles. It's fantastic to buy an iMac and get an inkjet for free or software discounts or even iPods.

I think when the dust settles and the holiday sales numbers come out, Apple will reevaluate their high margins and adjust their pricing slightly. If only to look like they are doing their part during the downturn to help ease the pain.

Rumor has it that Ben Bernanke called Steve Jobs. He wants his cash back.

[wizard69]

Originally Posted by zanshin

I'm pretty sure everyone has had ample opportunity by now to know that Apple has a fairly distinct business model, and it's nothing like WalMart or Best Buy.

Black Friday has become more of a marketing tradition in the past few years. The goal for many stores is to drive enough volume to make the books balance for the year. Not all stores have to do so and Apple's stores certainly fit into that group. The problem however is that you have to do something for fear of being seen by the consumer as hard-hearted or exploitive.

In other words yes Apples deals have not been to conducive to generating a lot of happiness in the consumer. The exist however so that Apple can be seen as being with the program. In other words the response to Apple not offering any sort of discount would be a lot worst than the response they get for a minor adjustment to selling price. Past BF discounts simply keep Apple from becoming a target for mass negativity.

Now all that is about the past. For the coming Black Friday I do see real potential here for Apple to be aggressive on some products. For example I believe they have a lot of room on the current iPod line up for significant discounts. This do to the continual slide in Flash prices and the economies realized in the recent redesign. 10 % shouldn't be impossible here. The laptops won't be easy to discount so probably no more than $100. What will be interesting is the iMacs and Minis. Obviously the Mini is way past due and is being built on old technology and similarly but not quite as bad on the iMacs, so costs should be way down. I could see Apple offering 15 to 20% on on this old technology. Maybe more. In either case they should be able to keep their margins similar to when the devices where released.

Even more interesting is Mini as there are some other things to consider besides its old age. For example the unit is obviously scheduled to be replace with something new. Apple has all but said so. That replacement would most likely happen very soon after Christmas. As such I see a very good possibility that Apple might discount the Mini for the entire Christmas shopping season. Maybe 10 to 15%. Think about it as everyone including Apple knows it is old technology and everybody knows a replacement is coming so why not offer a real deal for the holidays. Apple won't loose money, at least relative to the margins the Mini had a release. Apple would gain the positive benefit of being reactive to the economy too. Further a deep discount on something that will disappear in January won't hurt Apple at all when it comes to marketing the new replacement product. Finally that deep discount will draw traffic into the stores all season long.

Dave

[robb01]

This should be fun

____________

[charlituna]

Originally Posted by wilma

Are the BF discounts available for education pricing as well?

doubt it. it is typical with all retail companies that you can get sale pricing OR special pricing (ie, corporate, student, etc) but not both.

also, since there is the whole incentive thing with the iphone I doubt that they would do anything on the price for it. the best folks might get is a gift with or purchase with promo for that day/weekend. like "buy an iphone and get a free $25 gift card to the itunes store" (free car charger/accessory pack)

[intlplby]

once again, another financial analyst talking out his butt.

when will the financial analysts realize that apple is run by steve jobs, not your run of the mill harvard mba graduate (yes those those guys that got us into this credit crisis).

the day that these analysts actually have it correct is the day that their own kind is at the helm of apple running it (into the ground). Any tech company with too many wall street types is doomed.

When Toyota chairman Hiroshi Okuda was asked why GM is losing, he said: “GM hires the best MBAs, but Toyota hires the best engineers.” This applies to Google / Yahoo now.

And the different between Apple and Google is probably the number of MFAs they hire.

MFAs + Engineers = success
MBAs + more MBAs = FAIL


the only time these analysts are ever right is when the company they are analyzing makes most of there money below the line in the form of financial revenues, because that's the only time when similar minds are running the company.