Apple's Black Friday sale to bring gift cards, not discounts

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Customers awaiting word of what Apple would do for Black Friday need wait no longer, as the company's Australian online store has been updated with news that shoppers can collect gift cards, rather than discounts, with their new Mac, iPad, or iPod purchases this year.
Apple Store Black Friday promotion

In Australia -- the first of Apple's Black Friday promotions to launch -- the company is offering Apple Store gift cards worth up to AU$150 ($135) with Mac desktops and laptops, AU$75 ($68) with iPads, and AU$50 ($46) with iPods. Many accessories also carry the gift card kicker, with most --?like the Apple TV --?bringing customers an extra AU$25 ($23).

The iPhone is not subject to the gift card program, according to the Australian store, though there is no indication whether or not that policy will carry over to other countries.

The switch in Apple's game-plan is likely designed to help preserve the company's high-profit margins in an increasingly competitive market, but also make existing and upcoming Black Friday deals from its authorized resellers look even sweeter this year.

For instance, MacMall has cut $101 to $200 off some current MacBooks Airs and MacBook Pro Retinas, and up to $550 off some closeout models. Meanwhile, both B&H ($550 off 2012 model) and Amazon ($150 off current model) are running specials on 15-inch MacBook Pro Retinas, each of which can be seen in AppleInsider's Price Guides, a portion of which is below.

B&H, which only charges tax on orders shipped to NY also just knocked $150 off the new 13-inch MacBook Pro Retina 2.4GHz/4GB/128GB ($1,149.00) and 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina 2.0GHz/8GB/256GB ($1,848.99).

For its part, Best Buy just dropped the price of Apple's new entry level 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display by $200 from $1299.00 to $1,099 (Sold out), and knocked $150 off the rest of Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pros with Retina display.

Apple's Black Friday promotion will be available both through their online shop and in brick-and-mortar retail stores. AppleInsider will keep you up to date with the best of this year's holiday sales as they happen.




This is not the first time Apple has chosen to bundle a gift card with purchases during promotions. Recent iterations of the company's yearly back-to-school sale have swapped out the Mac-bundled iPods of old with iTunes gift cards.

Follow all the latest news on Apple-related Black Friday deals here.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 52
    Seems weak given that US retailers are offering real discounts, not just invitations to buy more.
  • Reply 2 of 52
    Lame
  • Reply 3 of 52
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member

    I am hoping that Apple will match other prices and still give out the GCs...

  • Reply 4 of 52
    saareksaarek Posts: 1,520member

    Ironic considering the profits that Apple makes, of all the companies on this planet Apple can afford to easily drop their pricing and still make far more money per sale than most companies do at full price.

  • Reply 5 of 52
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member

    It will be interesting to see where Tim decides to take them... The market is over saturate with phones, tablets, and related devices as it is.  I can't imagine Apple continuing their current pricing structure in the future...

  • Reply 6 of 52
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    $50 (~$45US) for the retina Mini--I'd been fearing zero on the mini like last year.

    Black Friday is not some kind of "good cause" and Black Friday sales are about profit, not charity. I'm disappointed, but let's face it: gift cards are great marketing! Get one product, and it comes with a discount on another! Or a discount on getting one for someone else.

    Luckily it's as good as cash for me: I plan to get a Mac Pro.

    Question: can you give your gift card to someone else or is it tied to you specifically?

    dave k. wrote: »
    It will be interesting to see where Tim decides to take them... The market is over saturate with phones, tablets, and related devices as it is.  I can't imagine Apple continuing their current pricing structure in the future...

    What company's pricing practices do you feel Apple would be foolish not to imitate?

    And do you feel Apple's products offer lesser value than others, or you do you find them to offer more utility and a longer usable life, making them good buys?

    (The oversaturation theory is definitely false--there are plenty of new customers, repeat customers, and switchers yet to be tapped in the world.)
  • Reply 7 of 52
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    Is there a product you can only get at the Apple store? Otherwise why not just to where the best deals are?
  • Reply 8 of 52
    The good news is there are plenty of retailers that sell discounted Apple products for Black Friday..
  • Reply 9 of 52
    Wow... what a joke. Many places like target are offering a discount ontop of a hundred dollar gift card, which you can spend on real items, not just downloads from the app/iTunes Store.

    Glad I pulled the trigger and ordered that new Air from Target last night instead of waiting for Apple's sale announcement.
  • Reply 10 of 52
    Australia has 'Black Friday'?

    Who knew.... I thought it was a purely US thing, in which case, it's not clear that we can infer anything from Australia about what Apple will offer here.
  • Reply 11 of 52
    nagrommenagromme Posts: 2,834member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cash907 View Post



    Wow... what a joke. Many places like target are offering a discount ontop of a hundred dollar gift card, which you can spend on real items, not just downloads from the app/iTunes Store.



    Glad I pulled the trigger and ordered that new Air from Target last night instead of waiting for Apple's sale announcement.

     

    Apple's under no obligation to undercut every resellers' deals (nor even to to know what all those sales are when they plan their own). Luckily, shoppers are under no obligation to avoid those reseller deals!

     

    But a correction: Apple gift cards can be used on ANYTHING* Apple sells. They are Apple gift cards, not iTunes gift cards. (In fact, if you want to use your gift card on downloads, then in my experience you must use the gift card to buy iTunes cards. *Or is this  no longer possible? If not, the cards are certainly still good for hardware.)

  • Reply 12 of 52
    This is Apple's gift to the re-sellers, it lets them reap incredible sales during the holidays.
  • Reply 13 of 52
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by iObserve View Post



    This is Apple's gift to the re-sellers, it lets them reap incredible sales during the holidays.

    Agreed. If a publisher/creator/producer has a distribution/dealer chain for its products, the last thing it wants to do is undercut that chain in pricing - otherwise the distributors/dealers will soon look elsewhere for product, even if the product is market-leading. Seems to me that Apple is doing exactly the right thing here.

     

    (I used to run a software/hardware company called HiSOFT and we had to think very carefully about pricing our products, to preserve our network of dealers and distributors.)

  • Reply 14 of 52
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post



    Australia has 'Black Friday'?



    Who knew.... I thought it was a purely US thing, in which case, it's not clear that we can infer anything from Australia about what Apple will offer here.

    I hate to break it to you again but here in Canada we've had it too for the last several years. Although, it's still not as big of a deal as in the U.S.

  • Reply 15 of 52
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post

     

    It will be interesting to see where Tim decides to take them... The market is over saturate with phones, tablets, and related devices as it is.  I can't imagine Apple continuing their current pricing structure in the future...


     

    Yeah, it's so saturated that Apple can sell 9 million phones in 3 days, is breaking their own quarterly records literally every quarter, and is set to smash all their historical sales/revenue/profit records this Christmas (and that of every company on the planet).

     

    But yeah, obviously they're doing something wrong.  

  • Reply 16 of 52
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by VisualZone View Post

     

    I hate to break it to you again but here in Canada we've had it too for the last several years. Although, it's still not as big of a deal as in the U.S.


    And in the UK. Pretty big here.

  • Reply 17 of 52
    saarek wrote: »
    Ironic considering the profits that Apple makes, of all the companies on this planet Apple can afford to easily drop their pricing and still make far more money per sale than most companies do at full price.

    1000
  • Reply 18 of 52
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slurpy View Post

     

     

    Yeah, it's so saturated that Apple can sell 9 million phones in 3 days, is breaking their own quarterly records literally every quarter, and is set to smash all their historical sales/revenue/profit records this Christmas (and that of every company on the planet).

     

    But yeah, obviously they're doing something wrong.  


    Yeah, Apple's been doing it wrong for many years. Guess they should be like the other PC manufacturers and price their way to the bottom. Too f'n funny. /s

  • Reply 19 of 52

    One more thing. There's also Cyber Monday coming up. Oh. And Boxing day specials. And...

  • Reply 20 of 52
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cash907 View Post



    Wow... what a joke. Many places like target are offering a discount ontop of a hundred dollar gift card, which you can spend on real items, not just downloads from the app/iTunes Store.



    Glad I pulled the trigger and ordered that new Air from Target last night instead of waiting for Apple's sale announcement.

    Stop spreading FUD. The gift cards are not just for iTunes downloads.  There for anything in the apple store. The Apple Stores by me say so. Was just at one yesterday.

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