It’s not very often that you can find a good deal on an Apple product. Through a combination of quality, products and marketing, Apple has established itself as a brand worth paying full price for, and people not only pay full price, they will even wait in line for the privilege to do so. Because it doesn’t need to offer discounts, the Apple Store just … doesn’t. Even on Black Friday, all they offer is a gift card bundled with any major product you buy. What the gift card is for varies from year to year, but in years past it’s alternated between an iTunes gift card and an Apple Store gift card. The amount, of course, depends on which item you buy.
As this is clearly not one of the better Black Friday deals around, you’re better off shopping for Apple products at authorized resellers – places like Target, Best Buy, Walmart and other electronics destinations. You can end up finding deals of up to 10 percent or so off, which is absolutely huge for Apple.
Buying any iPhone at the Apple Store last year would get you a $50 gift card. Other retailers had much better deals, though. Target offered the iPhone 5s for $79 last year, and that included a $30 gift card as well. Sam’s Club, on the other hand, offered the iPhone 6 for $99. Walmart and Best Buy always have great deals on iPhones as well, so these are all places you’ll want to keep an eye on this year. Of course, the iPhone 6s is what’s on everyone’s mind now, and you’ll probably find modest sales on these, but the big price cuts will be on the slightly older models.
There are a lot of iPads now, from the Pro to the Air to the Mini, so there are a ton of different price points to consider. Buying an iPad at the Apple Store last year got you – surprise, surprise – a $50 gift card. The iPad is something that still doesn’t get discounted that often, so you have to look at bundles to see the best deals. Target had the best deals on pretty much all of the iPads because they were offering a $100 gift card with purchase of the iPad Air 16 GB or iPad Mini 2 16GB, as well as a $140 gift card with the iPad Air 2 16GB. They were clearly serious about undercutting Apple on this one – the gift card more than doubles what your savings would be at the Apple Store itself.
The Apple Watch is new this year, so we don’t have any sample sales to look at from previous years, but it has a vast price range – starting as low as $350 and going all the way up to more than $1,000. This is a first-generation device that really came out in the second part of the year (preorders started in April and Apple Stores finally started stocking them in August), and all the major retailers you would expect have just begun selling the Apple Watch – Target, Best Buy, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc. Because of this, it’s unlikely they’ll be motivated to offer much of a discount this first holiday season. That’s not to say there won’t be one, though. The Apple Watch will most likely be included in the Apple Store gift card bundling sale, so other retailers will want to give customers some incentive to buy it from them instead of the Apple Store. Look for more impressive gift card offers from places like Target, or modest discounts of perhaps up to 5 percent.
Last year, the Apple Store offered a $100 gift card with purchase of an iMac, Macbook Pro or Macbook Air, among other models. This is absolutely not the best deal out there, though. Best Buy had the best sales on pretty much every item in the computer line last year, from a $780 Macbook Air to a $900 iMac. Their obvious advantage in the laptop and desktop segment of the Apple pie could lead to other retailers offering better deals this year to get into the game, or it could lead to everyone cutting back on deals so they’re a bit more even. It could really go either way. It’s pretty much guaranteed, though, that there will be solid sales available at a few of the authorized resellers.
Last year, the Apple Store was offering the Apple TV receiver for $99 with a $25 gift card, making it the best deal available for the Apple TV. The only wildcard here is that Apple has moved on to marketing the new Apple TV, which will retail starting at $149. This appears to have caused prices to drop elsewhere – Target was selling the old version for $69 in October and Best Buy was selling it for $65. As of mid-October, Apple hadn’t announced a specific release date for the new Apple TV, but one thing’s for sure – the old version will be cheaper than ever on Black Friday.
