A Sign of the Times: Macs on Sale 14 comments
Sam Diaz
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If there’s one thing about Apple (AAPL) products that you can pretty much always bank on, it’s that they rarely go on sale.
Best Buy (BBY) launched some pre-Black Friday specials that discounts a whole lineup of Macbooks, iMacs and even the Mac Mini. (Nope, iPods and the iPhone are not on the list.) Of course, these aren’t huge discounts - mostly $100 off, but up to $150 on a couple of models - but the fact that Macs are being discounted says something about what retailers are willing to do to get people to shop during this gloomy economy.
Not to be outdone, Apple itself has reportedly authorized its managers at the Apple stores to price-match competitors discounts, according to ifoAppleStore, a blog that follows information about the company’s retail stores. The details are sketchy but apparently you have to bring in the competitor’s ad to get the price-match. As far as Apple’s own specials, the company has put up a Web page advertising a one-day sale on Friday on the online store - but there are no specifics about what will be marked down.
Ah! Price wars. If there’s any silver lining to a holiday season caught in the middle of a bad economy, this is it. I suspect this isn’t the only pricing war we’ll see this season.
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This article has 14 comments:
Apple stores have a Black Friday sale every year.
A simple Google search confirms what the previous 2 posters said. This is an annual Apple event:
www.macrumors.com/2007.../
forums.macrumors.com/s...
www.appleinsider.com/a...
Ah, the internets. It makes it so easy to be, and to be proven, wrong.
Nice blog sam. Now maybe apple will get back to 180 a little sooner than a million years.
If we are going to receive opinions from journalists, especially 'citizen journalists', we need to have standards. Facts:
1. 'Sign of the times' doesn't imply an annual post-Thanksgiving event. It implies economics so bad that even Apple must discount.
2. '....that you can pretty much always bank on...' is not just bad writing, it's incorrect. See links for Black Friday listings from years past. You can bank on Apple having Black Friday sales every year.
3. '....but the fact that Macs are being discounted says something about what retailers are willing to do to get people to shop during this gloomy economy.' Again, wrongly confounds an annual event with desperation.
4. '...Apple itself has reportedly authorized its managers at the Apple stores to price-match competitors discounts....'. This doesn't strike me as desperation, but rather Apple's intense interest to control the quality and quantity of its sales through its own channel. They should be doing this 24/7 in order to protect people from from buying Apple products from BestBuy, for instance. This is due to one question - can you honestly tell me that you'll get the same technical or customer service at BestBuy as you will at an Apple Store? Price matching is just a way to get customers to convert to that channel.
I'm not interested in reading monkey business about Apple or any other technology company in which I invest. This is nothing personal against Sam or any other writer, but anyone linked from the Yahoo! AAPL investment page should have their facts straight and not travel the laziest route to get readers. Sorry if that's the coarse truth, but I can't excuse that.
On Nov 25 07:12 PM Buffeted wrote:
> Wow! take it easy guys, all he said was that apple products rareley
> go on sale, nothing about a first time for thanksgiving or anything.
>
> Nice blog sam. Now maybe apple will get back to 180 a little sooner
> than a million years.
It might be a good idea to research before speaking.
Apple has had special discounts on Black Friday as long as I can remember.
This is not a sign of the times.
"Just like any industry luxury items, mac products will be the first thing people cut back on just like sports cars and suv's in the auto industry. "
The first thing? How long have we been in this downturn? It still hasnt happened!
I wont even go into your "extremely unjustifiable premium" comment.
I guess you enjoy the EXTREMELY cheap, buggy windows driven pc.
And yes, there is always a sale on Apple stuff at this time of year, and always a deal offered at back-to-school, as well as father's day, and year 'round college discounts, church school discounts, etc...
Apple seems to be one of the least impacted by the economic downturn because it's customers are usually either professionals or kids, etc... The products for kids are not going to be denied nearly to the extent of 'luxury' items such as jewelry.
Stocks like Wal-Mart go up in these difficult times. But what person at this point has not taken the joy of downloading an album, at a discount, directly onto their iPods, which can also be burnt to disk, beamed to your stereo/TV, etc... all for LESS THAN IT COSTS AT WALMART.
You people who think Apple is going down in this downturn are just stupid.