Apple cuts iPad price to $458
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
By John D. Sutter, CNN
Apple discounted several of its products on Friday.
(CNN) -- Apple's iPad tablet computer -- one of the hottest items of the holiday shopping season -- got a price cut on the company's website Friday.
People who buy the iPad online Friday will save $41, making the lowest price for the device $458 for a model without a 3G connection and with 16 gigabytes of storage space. The top-end model, with a 3G connection and 64 gigabytes of storage, is also discounted $41, making it $788.
That's about an 8 percent discount on the base-level model and a 5 percent discount on the highest-end iPad.
Those one-day sale prices probably still sound expensive to many consumers, but the Black Friday sale is getting buzz from tech blogs because Apple rarely discounts the price of its high-end electronics and because the iPad is said to be one of the most sought-after gifts of the year.
The iPad was the No. 1 item on the electronics wish lists of kids ages 6 to 12, according to a survey from Nielsen. It was the fourth-most-sought-after item among kids older than 13. Computers, TVs and smartphones were higher on the list for the older kids.
"Given the continued pressure on consumer spending, it is difficult to know how robust a holiday season this will be for tech devices, but this survey suggests the electronics aisle will be heavily traveled this season," that survey said.
Apple also listed discounts for several other items on its website. All of these deals are good until the end of Friday only. Among them:
$101 off the 13-inch MacBook Air
$101 off the MacBook Pro
$101 off the iMac
$41 off the iPod Touch
$21 off the iPod Nano
The site is offering free shipping on orders of $50 or more. The online price cut highlights a trend toward online sales and discounts this holiday season, but the Apple discounts were also available in Apple's retail stores Friday, according to two Apple store employees phoned by CNN.
At least one other retailer appeared to have discounted the iPad, too. At least one T.J. Maxx store was selling the base-level iPad for $400, or $58 less than the price listed at Apple.com, according to the tech blog Engadget, which posted apparent photos showing the in-store-only sale. The same photo was posted by a user on the store's website.
An employee who answered the phone Friday morning at that T.J. Maxx store, in Mount Vernon, New York, told CNN the $400 iPads were sold out.
Credit: CNN (www.cnn.com)
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