“Apple may not give Black Friday discounts on its blockbuster devices, but experts say retailers like Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy are turning to the iPad to attract customers,” Quentin Fottrell reports for MarketWatch.
“Among ‘door-buster’ widescreen TVs — many by lesser known brands — the major big box stores had generous deals on the iPad Air 2,” Fottrell reports. “Target offered the 16-gigabyte iPad Air 2 for $499 with a $140 gift card both online and in stores and Wal-Mart offered it for $489 with a $100 gift card as pre-Black Friday discount. Best Buy sold out online of the iPad Air 2 by simply knocking $100 off the original price. The iPad Air 2 (and Apple’s ‘Beats by Dr Dre Solo HD’) were the top selling items for Target online and in stores, a Target spokeswoman says.”
“Nothing gets consumers excited during the holiday season like an eye-grabbing discount on an Apple product, says Ben Arnold, industry analyst and executive director with The NPD Group, a market research company,” Fottrell reports. “‘The iPad is becoming increasingly important to Black Friday and Cyber Monday,’ he says. ‘Promotions like these are hard for shoppers to pass up as they combine a premium brand, a proven home run of a product and a good discount.’ Indeed, he expects iPad sales to increase by 50% year-over-year during Black Friday week 2014 — after sales for the iPad doubled year-over-year for the same period last year.”
Read more in the full article here.