The coronavirus pandemic has made 2020 a most unusual year in more ways than we’d like to think about or elaborate on right now, but the holiday shopping season is set to carry on as scheduled after getting off to a bit of an early start with Amazon’s delayed 48-hour Prime Day extravaganza.
The e-commerce giant, as well as Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and the nation’s biggest wireless service providers are undoubtedly all gearing up to sell some of the world’s hottest and most popular gadgets at their highest discounts yet towards the end of November. One item likely to show up near the top of many holiday shopping lists is the industry-leading Apple Watch, currently available from its manufacturer in a grand total of three main variants.
Although it’s obviously too early to know for sure exactly what might be in store this Black Friday, we fully expect to see the Apple Watch SE, Series 6, and Series 3 discounted in a number of places across the country on and before November 27. Even better, the Apple Watch Series 5 is likely to join the three aforementioned models, as retailers like Amazon and Best Buy will probably try to clear their lingering inventory after Apple’s official discontinuance of the 2019-released timepiece.
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Will the Apple Watch Series 6 be on sale for Black Friday?
It’s typically extremely rare to see an all-new Apple Watch generation marked down several months after its commercial debut with no strings attached, and at least for the time being, we have no real reason to expect the high-end Series 6 to be an exception to that rule.
On the bright side, if you don’t mind carrier strings, T-Mobile can already hook you up with a hefty $200 discount (in the form of monthly bill credits) if you’re willing to jump through a number of hoops.
You can also save $200 on AT&T by doing the BOGO (buy-one-get-one) dance right now, while Verizon will only shave $100 off the $500 and up list price of a cellular-capable Apple Watch Series 6 with an eligible trade-in.
Something tells us those deals will get (slightly) better as Black Friday approaches, and the same probably goes for Amazon’s surprisingly early discounts of up to $25 on a wide range of 40 and 44mm Series 6 models.
Apple Watch SE: expected Black Friday discounts
Because the lower-end and lower-cost SE is just as new as the Series 6 collection, our hopes for straightforward Black Friday deals and discounts at the likes of Best Buy, Walmart, and Target are similarly slim.
On the bright side, Amazon is already selling essentially every single version at $10 off its regular price, which is… better than nothing, also making us relatively confident that a slightly deeper cut could be coming soon.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon are offering pretty much the same early holiday promotions on the Apple Watch SE as on the Series 6, although the lower price of the former model naturally results in higher percentage discounts.
Expected Black Friday deals on Apple Watch Series 3
Normally priced at a very reasonable $200 and up these days, the 2017-released Series 3 doesn’t appear to leave much room for further markdowns.
But if history is any indication, Apple itself could throw in a nice gift card with this oldie but goodie come Black Friday 2020, while Best Buy is likely to revive its Prime Day-rivaling deals from a couple of weeks ago and slash up to $20 off the current Apple Watch Series 3 list prices.
Then again, both Amazon and Walmart allow you to purchase the GPS-only 38mm variant at a cool $30 discount with over a month to go until Black Friday, so perhaps Best Buy will sweeten its holiday offers after all, in which case Walmart could definitely up the ante to a $50 or so price cut.
Will the Apple Watch Series 5 be discounted this Black Friday?
Mind you, that’s discounted, not discontinued, as the 2019-released high-end model is still alive and well at multiple major US retailers and even a couple of carriers. Just like the Series 4 last year, the Apple Watch Series 5 could score Black Friday price reductions of $100 or more on GPS-only versions and well over $200 as far as LTE-enabled configurations are concerned at everyone from Best Buy to Walmart, not to mention T-Mobile and Verizon.
Unsurprisingly, Amazon has a couple of non-cellular-capable 44mm flavors on sale for $79 less than usual at the time of this writing, although you may have to decide fairly quickly whether it’s wiser to pull the trigger now or wait a few more weeks for potentially better deals.
Source: Phonearena
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