Modest Black Friday discounts help Mac sales

Apple didn't cut prices as much as some had expected on Black Friday, but it didn't seem to matter to consumers.

(Credit: CNET)

Few analysts were prepared to call Apple's Black Friday performance a blowout, but in general they thought consumers responded well to Apple's products and pricing last week.

Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers, and Maynard Um of UBS have weighed in with their thoughts on Apple's sales during the first official shopping day of the holiday season. Expectations had been muted going into the weekend, which many had thought would be dismal given the economic environment.

But the overall picture wasn't as bad as some had feared. And despite sticking with its historical Black Friday discount strategy rather than rolling out aggressive price cuts, Apple fared well, according to Munster. Checks at various Apple retail stores indicated that "Mac sales were better than expected" and iPhone sales were about in line with expectations, he wrote in a research note Monday.

Kaufman's Wu wrote, "Despite modest 5 percent-10 percent discounts by AAPL itself through its retail stores and website, our distributor and retail checks indicate strong foot traffic at AAPL stores and that iPods and Macs did fairly well, helped by bigger promotions by third-party retailers and unadvertised price matching by AAPL." There had been reports that Apple was planning to discount its products more steeply than in the past in response to concerns over the health of the economy, but the company stood pat.

UBS' Um also noted that Apple resellers, such as Best Buy and MacMall, were willing to discount prices more aggressively than Apple as well as apply discounts to products that Apple wouldn't touch in its own stores, such as the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

[UITD]

Apple Sales? What sales? Apples dont go on sale. They're 50 to 70% higher priced than a Wintel comparable box - they do the same exact thing and the definitely LOOK prettier. Pretty doesnt matter. Function and price does.

Apple will never break out of their low percentage usage until they A) allow clones and B) drop their prices down to reality.

[ppgreat]

Wrong, FUDmeister.

"Comparable box?" "They do the same exact thing?"

A simple Google search will show you how Apple fares against Wintel boxes and/or laptops in pricing and features.

[protagonistic]

I hate to be the one to break this too you, but the price for a comparable "Wintel" box is just about the same as a Mac is. Can you buy a $400 dollar Mac, no. But then I would not want to buy a $400 PC either as what you end up with is a cheap $400 PC.

When people want your product you do not have to give deep discounts to get people to buy. Maybe that is a lesson Wintel could learn from Apple.

[UITD]

@ppgreat - This isnt the 1980's anymore. I can do anything I want on a Wintel box that the Apple boxes can do for 1/2 the price. Period. Discussion over.

@protagonistic - With a market share as low as Apple's is, its apparent that Apple probably should discount their product. The exact same hardware is inside these things. I can do the same work on either one of them. The price should be quite similar for either - but its not. Its not even in the same ballpark. Done.

[etiahwhite]

"modest" that's putting nicely...the discounts were nothing to get excited about. The only worthwhile discounts I saw were on some of the iphone cases but I mean really $11 off a $149 nano. I just get insulted when I see things like that I was just on circuit city and they were $3 off. I know they really have a strangle hold on the pricing but isn't the point of a sale or discount to entice people not insult them with practically non existent discounts. I own lots of apple products and I'm quite pleased with how they've all held up. I just wanted to get a gift for someone and just realized the nano was so outta budget.

[AppleSuxLeo]

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