Apple’s reasons for success Black Friday deals are even better this year than ever
Welcome to our weekend Apple Breakfast column, featuring all the Apple news you missed this week in a handy bite-sized summary. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes well with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning, but it’s cool if you want to read it over lunch or dinner too.
Deal with it
There’s always a stark contrast between the standard of “deals” Apple offers for Black Friday, and those offered by third-party retailers for the same products. But after wading through yesterday’s bonanza, I can report that the gap has been particularly wide this year.
On Apple’s side, the economic gloom and pleas of a certain Macworld columnist weren’t enough to persuade the company to actually discount its products. Instead, as usual, it’s giving away gift cards (to be spent on a second item) on selected purchases – and several products were surprisingly excluded. (If you plan to buy more than one Apple device, this may still be the best option for some products. See Apple’s website for the offers, and do the math carefully.)
Meanwhile, the hundreds of companies selling only Apple products have managed to pull some excellent deals out of the bag. Costco sold the 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro for $900 (that’s $400 off the original MSRP and $300 off Costco’s regular price) and might still be if you act fast. Though it’s now sold out, Amazon knocked a whopping $99 off last year’s Apple TV 4K, while Walmart snatched $130 off the first-generation Apple Watch SE. And it’s been a particularly good year for Mac sales: KRCS crushed all entrants with its series of deals in the UK, and Amazon and others slashed $200 on the M1 Air and $500 on the M1 Pro MacBook Pros. And every AirPods model is on sale, even the latest AirPods Pro, which has barely been on shelves for two months.
Of course, it’s hard to know why the Apple deals were generally better than previous years, but we can consider some factors as the likely reasons. One is the reactive approach of so many companies in times of high digital traffic: it only takes a few sellers to lower their prices and others will try to outdo them and take the top spot in those crucial price comparison widgets. Another is the improvement in supply chain health compared to 2021, as well as the relative lack of recent Mac and iPad updates to drive undiscounted sales. Perhaps a few companies calculated that inflation and a rising cost of living would discourage customers from making purchases unless they are incentivized by substantial discounts. It’s kind of a perfect storm of factors that leads to consistently low prices for almost everything Apple sells.
And the good news is that the deal season isn’t over yet. Sales are still going strong and will continue to do so through Cyber Monday (November 28) and beyond. And you can check out the most unmissable offers by reading our guide to the best Apple deals.
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IDG
The rumor mill
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Software updates, bugs and issues
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And with that we are done for this week. To receive regular raids, sign up for our newsletters. You can also follow us on Twitter for the latest news items. See you next Saturday, enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay Appley.
