“Apple’s four-day Black Friday shopping event is now live in the United States, offering customers free Apple Store gift cards worth up to $200 with the purchase of select new Apple products,” Joe Rossignol reports for MacRumors:
Gift card values in the United States:
• $200 for 13-inch MacBook Pro, iMac, or iMac Pro
• $100 for MacBook Air
• $100 for iPad Pro
• $100 for Beats Studio3 Wireless
• $50 for SIM-free iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone XR
• $50 for 10.5-inch iPad Air or iPad mini 5
• $50 for HomePod
• $50 for Beats Solo3 Wireless, Powerbeats3 Wireless, or Powerbeats Pro
• $25 for Apple Watch Series 3, regular AirPods, Apple TV 4K, or Apple TV HD
MacDailyNews Take: Apple doesn’t need “special deals” to move products, so anything they decide to offer is a nice bonus.
Yes, they need deals. Why? Because people are more computer literate and tech savvy. “It just works”, is really no longer true. “It works more often than not”, is more like it. Yes Apple could charge more because it gave more, on computers there is the software suite. That is worth at least 300 dollars, more if they would put time or development into that suite. Sales are falling for the ridiculously priced iPhone. 1000 + dollars to make a phone call, not to mention the monthly insane prices from cell companies. If you only knew how much an actual call cost… Trust me, you would tell people, I’ll be home sooner or later, you can reach me there.
Bob, if you need to make phone calls, buy a Nokia 3310 for $50, and quit whining, you’re starting to sound like CitizensuX with all your pretend superiority.
And, one can almost always get better deals elsewhere most days of the year.
I don’t know if Apple needs deals to move products but I think most consumers like to believe they’re getting some sort of deal. That’s just human nature. However, when I buy an Apple product, I’m mainly focused on long-term use and long-term amortization, so it’s usually well-worth it for me to buy an Apple product whether there is a current deal or not. All my Apple products last more than five years and remain quite usable for that period, so that is more important to me than saving a few bucks.
For instance, I have a 2012 i7 Mac Mini and it’s running Catalina OS like a champ. That’s over seven-years-old and with extra memory and an SSD drive, I would swear it’s nearly as good as new as it does everything I need it to do. I definitely got my money’s worth.