Apple Black Friday Deals: Everything You Need To Know

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day of the year in the U.S., is almost here. These annual sales get bigger every year and now tend to last all weekend long, culminating in Cyber Monday (which is itself being further stretched into Cyber Week). Black Friday 2019 is probably the best time other than Prime Day to score deals on brand-name items from makers like Apple, but you don’t have to wait until you’ve got a belly full of Thanksgiving turkey to start hunting for bargains.

Black Friday was originally an in-store thing, but that’s no longer the case: With those yearly viral videos of people battling to the death in brick-and-mortar retail stores, it’s not hard to see why more people are choosing to stay home and score their Black Friday deals online. Whether you’re going online to do your Black Friday shopping this year or you’re heading out to the stores in person, you’ll have to be vigilant to find the best Apple Black Friday deals, as these high-ticket tech items don’t often go on sale.

Apple Deals Going On Now

We’re squarely in the holiday season now, which means that retailers including Apple will be running sales until Christmas and into January; if you’re determined to sniff out the best Apple Black Friday deals, then be sure to keep your eyes on other retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Target as well as Apple. If you’re a savvy shopper who’s already on the hunt for Apple deals and you don’t want to wait for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, though, then maybe these discounts on AirPods, Apple Watches, MacBooks, and iPads can tide you over:

What to Expect on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

We’ve seen a slew of new Apple devices this year, from the new iPad Mini and iPad Air in the spring to the new Apple Watch Series 5, seventh-gen iPad, and iPhone 11 in the fall, so Black Friday 2019 could prove to be a gold mine for Apple deals. The best time to buy tech is when the new stuff drops, so at the very least, you can expect to see big price slashes on 2017 and 2018 Apple devices from major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, B&H, and the Apple Store itself for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2019.

We’re especially hoping for Black Friday deals on 2018 models like the Apple Watch Series 4, iPad Pro, and iPhone XS, but also remember to keep slightly older (but still awesome) discounted gadgets on your radar like the Apple Watch Series 3 and Apple AirPods. It’s not likely we’ll see huge price cuts on just-released Apple tech such as the new iPad or Apple Watch Series 5 — for those, it’s more probable that we’ll get some sort of gift card bundle deals like Apple offered for Black Friday 2018 rather than standard discounts. That said, it never hurts to keep your eyes open; you never know what big sales like this might bring.

What We Saw Last Black Friday and Prime Day

Apple isn’t a company that often holds large-scale sales, and sure enough, its Black Friday 2018 deals were largely a repeat of its previous efforts. This year, many shoppers enjoyed frequent discounts on some highly popular but less-expensive stuff like the standard 2018 iPad and Apple Watch Series 3, but fewer deals were available on the pricier items like flagship iPhones, MacBooks, and iPad Pro tablets — with one notable exception being Prime Day, Amazon’s retail event specifically designed to out-compete Black Friday.

But the big caveats with Prime Day are that it’s a 48-hour promotion and the “official” deals for the sale (i.e. not those offered by third-party retailers trying to cash in) are limited exclusively to Amazon Prime members — a premium membership you have to pay for. There are thankfully no such restrictions for Black Friday, so make sure you take a look at the deals above to see what major retailers are offering. We regularly smoke out all the latest offers for iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and MacBooks, so make sure you shop around before handing over any money.

Looking for more great stuff? Find tech deals, fall sales, Black Friday news, and much more on our curated deals page.

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