Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and Mac Seeing Markdowns Black Friday Weekend

Apple is traditionally not known for marking down its own products, enough so that it was even a surprise when the company announced a small discount on refurbished HomePods. But in a bit of a Black Friday and Cyber Monday-twist Apple announced on Monday that it would be holding a “four-day shopping event” that will last from November 23 to 26.

The company updated its website Monday to tease the launch of its first big blowout sale ever. While it’s unclear what markdowns or bundles Apple might offer, the site’s metadata offered a clue by indicating that Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices will all be included.

Currently, the page only offers visitors the option to add the event to their calendars. This indicates that the company may be taking a queue from Amazon’s Prime Day playbook, offering a series of deals on different products that are only available during short windows of time.

Multiple days of discounts are out of character for the Cupertino-based company. Traditionally it has only included gift cards along with full-priced purchases during Black Fridays past. So we’ll have to wait and see how tempting these deals will be.

Apple Black Friday: What’s Models Could See Discounts?

Apple’s hasn’t announced what specific models will go on sale but, given the drama of the announcement, it seems not unreasonable to think that the Apple Watch Series 4 and the iPhone XS Max could very well be in the mix. There is a conspicuous common thread amongst the four product Apple teased in the announcement, they are all products that saw refreshes this year.

This suggests that Apple has something bigger in mind this year than simply offering some older products for reduced prices (which you can also pick up from other outside retailers regardless of what Apple plans). Any markdown would make the iPhone XR much more budget-friendly and the new iPad Pros could see their prices slashed just a month after their release.

Apple Black Friday: Why Is Apple Doing This?

There’s also some evidence that Apple needs a big holiday season, sales wise. The company is having a notably bad year stock performance-wise and a massive Black Friday blowout could help turn things around.

While most of the big tech companies have had a rough fall, Apple has fewer positive stock analyst ratings than any other tech giant this year, according to a recent Bloomberg report. Even Facebook is rated higher than Apple, despite a never ending string of scandals like the Cambridge Analytica breach and a serious hack this year.

A hail Mary Play by Apple could be an attempt try to flip the script. Whether Apple’s hail Mary will be a good deal for consumers, however, remains to be seen.