Yahoo Finance Apple Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals: the best predictions for the 2019 sale
Apple, understandably, does not follow the crowd on Black Friday. While competitors rush to cut prices and capitalise on the global sales event, Apple plays it cool. Why? Well, customers will buy iPhones, iPads and MacBooks regardless.
The brand boasts a loyal band of followers that are, generally, keen to upgrade their devices the second new versions are released. In September, Apple super-fans queued up to eighteen hours to get their hands on the new iPhone 11 on its launch day.
Thankfully, Apple doesn’t forgo Black Friday and Cyber Monday completely. In recent years its eponymous ‘Store’ has offered gift cards over discounts, incentivising its full-price products.
These Black Friday gift cards are typically tacked on to the purchase of an iMac, iPad, iPhone or Apple Watch, with the value dependent on the product’s own (from £20 with an iPhone SE to £120 with an iMac), making them a great choice for people shopping for multiple Apple products.
For those who aren’t, third-party retailers are your best bet. Stores like Carphone Warehouse, Amazon and Currys PC World regularly feature Apple products in their Black Friday deals. Some even take big hits to their profit margin in the hope of having the best Apple deal on Black Friday and increasing their overall traffic.
Where to find Apple Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
‘Free’ direct-from-Apple gift cards are not your only option. Big retailers are inclined to knock more and more money off their Apple stock over the competitive Cyber Weekend, knowing the increased demand gets customers through their literal and digital doors. The likes of Amazon, Currys, John Lewis, AO, and Ebuyer have all offered significant discounts over the last few years.
Amazon, in particular, tend to include one or two Apple products from each category in their ‘Lightning’ deals. These deals always have limited stock and last just a few hours, making them perfect doorbusters for high-value Apple products.
Predictions: The best deals for 2019
Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals often follow formulaic patterns – particularly on Apple products. So here we've analysed the most popular deals and general sales trends throughout the last decade to predict the best deals of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019.
iPhones
Carphone Warehouse is currently offering the brand-new Apple iPhone 11 with unlimited texts, minutes and 5GB of data for £49 upfront and £39.99 per month. Monthly costs are unlikely to be reduced on such a popular product, but the upfront cost may be removed for Black Friday.
Better Black Friday deals will always be found on slightly older models, be it for a pay-monthly contract combo or a sim-free iPhone. We expect to see the iPhone XR dip under £600 over Black Friday weekend, and the iPhone 8 around £450.
Thanks to their persistent popularity, most iPhone models are sure to be discounted somewhere over the sales period. Just be aware that anything older than an iPhone 8 is relatively affordable anyway – you can get one on a pay monthly contract for as little as £25 a month with no upfront fee.
MacBooks and iMacs
Compared to the majority of laptops and PCs on the market, MacBooks and iMacs are notoriously pricey. Cyber Weekend offers a rare opportunity to grab them at a discount, however, so it’s worth holding off on an upgrade until the end of November.
Based on previous years’ deals, we expect big discounts on the MacBook Air (roughly £150 off) and many MacBook models (which could reach up to £200 off), with a range of additional models scattered across different retailers.
In fact, John Lewis has already discounted last year’s 13-inch MacBook Pro from £1,769 to £1,499, suggesting the supercharged machine could go on sale for as little as £1400 come Black Friday.
As fewer are being produced to make way for MacBooks and iPads, iMacs will be harder to find in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. We imagine around £100 to £150 off the iMac models that do go on sale, like this 21.5-inch iMac which has recently been reduced from £1049 to £951.
iPads
While tablet purchases have declined in the last five years overall, Apple’s iPad sales have been largely unaffected.
Ebuyer is already selling the rose gold iPad Pro for £482.99, beating most of their competitor's prices by at least £100.
Though the iPad Pro has new display technology that takes streamed content to the next level, the ‘basic’ iPad display is still fantastic and not worth discounting. The new 9.7-inch iPad even features the same Apple Pencil support and could be reduced by as much as £200 over the Cyber Weekend.
Read our guide on the best tablet deals in the Black Friday sales.
Apple watches
Fitness trackers are set to be a Christmas gift favourite once again and Apple watches are no exception. The Apple Watch Series 5, as the newest model, is likely to receive no more than a £10 to £20 cut on Black Friday, while older generations will be offered for much less.
We expect Series 5 Apple watches to stick around £380, Series 4 around £320, Series 3 around £180 and, well, anything under a Series 3 is not really worth the investment.
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