Will Apple Turn To ‘Aggressive’ Black Friday Discounts?
9:11 am, November 13th, 2008, Ed Sutherland
With consumer buying in the tank and computer makers reportedly readying $299 holiday PCs, can 
Apple afford to repeat its usual $100 discounts on Macs? One analyst thinks its time for Steve Jobs to get ‘aggressive’ during the all-important ‘Black Friday’ after-Thanksgiving sales.
Barclay Capital’s Ben Reitzes told investors Wednesday Apple should offer discounts on iPhones and iPods, as well as Macs.
“We would like to see Apple get more price aggressive in every product, including the iPhone, given obvious weakness in the economy,” he wrote in a note to investors.
Apple can afford expanding its limited discounts. “The company’s high margins could likely absorb” the offers. AT&T could duplicate Orange’s expected holiday price cut to 99 euros.
Another possibility: consumers could turn to the iPod when searching for an affordable gadget. Along with carrying the well-known Apple brand, sales of iPods are surprising analysts as sales drop less than half of that expected.
However, don’t expect this holiday to see Apple offering an inexpensive netbook, an area Reitzes predicts will show the greatest demand. Despite consumers searching for low-cost electronics, Cupertino won’t unveil a netbook “for several more quarters.”
Posted by Ed Sutherland in News, Top stories | Comment on this article
Great idea, Ben. Let’s make Apple a “me too” product. Maybe next he’ll recommend Porsche start offering discounts and 0% financing so they can better compete with Buick?
imajoebob, on November 13th, 2008 at 10:32 am
If by “aggressive,” you mean “free shipping and engraving” and possibly “gift wrapping,” then maybe they will!
These types of reports come up every year, and it makes me wonder if they’re not fronted by analysts who want to buy themselves a new Macbook Pro or something so they drum up demand for “aggressive” discounts. Does anyone remember Apple cutting deep and offering percentages off sale for the holiday season? I certainly can’t, but if someone else does, please, prove me wrong.
Besides, with demand for Apple’s products still relatively strong in the face of a weak economy, I don’t think Apple is going to cut its prices too much this holiday season. iPods and Macbooks will still wind up under a number of holiday shrubs, and the people who’ll probably cut into margin to sell them will be retailers who resell Apple products.
phoenix, on November 13th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
I’m not sure if you read the article you’re quoting, but his plan is basically what Apple already does each year. Apple offers discounts on all Macs (except the Mac Pro and Xserve,) even the Mini got a $20 price dip last year. iPods are the same, some discount on all iPods (except perhaps the Shuffle,) I’d expect the top end iPod touch to drop by $50, but I doubt Apple is allowed per their contract with carriers to discount the iPhone. Apple even offers discounts on mice, keyboard and .Mac.
Holland, on November 13th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
@Holland: If you’re referring to me, I think we have the definition of discounts and price drops somewhat mixed up. Apple is well known for dropping its prices occassionally and marking down items, but my point is that I don’t think Apple will do so simply because it’s the holiday and make those price drops limited-time only bargains, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them do this before.
So while the price of Apple’s products have been known to go down from time to time, it’s usually not specifically in response to a particular event like the holidays, it’s often tied to a pending refresh or a desire to clear out stock, and it’s almost never a fire-sale situation by any means.
phoenix, on November 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
some stuff that crossed my mind reading everythings comments
1. no one with half a brain will claim that Macs never freeze or crash. they do. but I have owned several, my friends and family have owned several and the crash rate has been a fraction of the Windows machines we’ve also had or know of from co-workers etc. And where are the shops for Microsoft trained Windows experts that will look at your machine for free, show you fixes you can do yourself etc. I have one just a quarter mile from my apartment. oh wait, no, that’s my local Apple store. nevermind.
2. the “I’m a Mac” ads don’t show Joe Q using the computer but at least a few bit of them talk about what you can do as well as address some of those ‘buyers remorse’ issues like “It’s too hard to transfer my files” or “what if it breaks”.
3. there is a whole collection of ads, most of them the iphone true, of what you can do. shown step by step. still better than the Microsoft stuff
4. Apple is better off dropping prices than doing a sale. Computers are the sort of thing that have a market all year, not just in December. That is how they need to think.
5. I”m actually glad that they didn’t release new IMacs this month. I suspect that being able to do that would have meant rushing and we’d end up with another sitch like this trackpad issue. an issue they would have to gloss over and not fix stat cause they would be getting out the new iMacs and dealing with issues there. Let them take a little more time to make it truly street ready. folks that want to buy someone a computer and get a frakking gift card and tell them “this is for you to get yourself a computer, now or you can wait and see if something new comes out in a month or two”
charlituna, on November 15th, 2008 at 7:21 am