Traditionalists might balk, but the holiday shopping season is already underway. Skeptical? Head to your local department store and you'll be inundated by Christmas trees and ornaments. Bargain hunters, though, know that the real deals are more than a month away.
Black Friday, traditionally, is when retailers truly slash prices. Early birds can save hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars off of their holiday bills. Switched.com checked with a few elves, who gave a sneak peek at what you can expect deal-wise this year.
Blu-ray Players and Movies: Blu-ray is shaping up to be the biggest door buster of this year's Black Friday. de Grandpre expects at least one retailer will offer a Blu-ray player for just $49. Look for bargains on Blu-ray films as well, with last year's hit titles (such as "Iron Man") to fall as low as $5.
Laptops: With the proliferation of Netbooks this year, it's never been easier to find affordable portable computing, but Dan de Grandpre, CEO of DealNews.com says it will get even cheaper on Black Friday. Look for well-equipped Netbooks to sell for $199 – and basic 15" laptops to go for as little as $249.
HDTVs (Pretty big): The holidays are typically the best time to buy a new TV – and Black Friday is the time to do it. If you're looking for a normal sized set, you're in luck. Piper Jaffrey analyst Mitch Kaiser says he expects to see 32-inch LCD sets for as low as $299. GottaDeal.com is estimating 37-inch plasma and LCD sets will fall to $399 or less.
HDTVs (Really big): Need something bigger? How about a 46-47 inch LCD set for $599 – a 25 percent savings? Or a 52-inch LCD for $999? Dealnews says you can expect both. Plasma deals will be a little harder to come by, but a 50-inch set should run roughly $899.
HD Camcorders: You've wanted to shoot your child's school play in HD for a while, but haven't been able to spring for the pricey camcorder. This might be the year. Low-end, flash-based 720p models could drop as low as $60 (though you won't be able to zoom with those). Expect a high quality 1080p HD camcorder for $349.
GPS: While navigation systems have dramatically expanded their reach this year – even making it onto the iPhone – there's still a market for car-based systems. Dealnews predicts you'll be able to find a no-name entry-level system for $49, while a Garmin or Tom-Tom brand will be as low as $69.
Digital Picture Frames: Showcasing your digital pictures consistently gets cheaper. This year, skip the 7-inch screens and focus on the 8- or 9-inch ones, which should be available on Black Friday for as little as $30.
Monitors: Computer monitors might not be the sexiest of gifts, but they're usually welcomed with open arms – and they'll be cheap this year. Name brand 22-inch LCD models may go for as low as $99, while 24-inch models will drop below $150.
Memory: Don't know anyone who needs a monitor? External hard drives are always popular, since they're an easy way to back-up data. Dealnews expects a 1TB drive to fall as low as $49 this year. Gottadeal is looking for 8GB flash drives to hit $15.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nycmuscleasian said 4:08AM on 3-14-2008
Completely disagree with the following statement from the article:
"All these next-gen disc formats are doomed, since HD-downloading on devices such as Apple TV and Vudu are only going to grow."
Doomed? Let us examine available evidence...
Apple TV has already shown lack luster growth. HD-downloading market is not going to fair well mainly due to the lack of movie/film studio indurty support. The lack of support from the movie industry is what killed the HD DVD camp, despite that HD DVD software and hardware were cheaper to produce as compared to Bluray.
Furthermore, one cannot compare music downloading market with movie downloading industry. Downloading music industry is killing traditional CD sales mainly due to how music service is enjoyed and purchased by the consumer. The majority of the population values convenience, instantaneous service, and portability over quality. This is the same reason past business ventures into higher quality audio formats such as SACD and DVD Audio were all flops, and iPod and all sorts of MP3 devices proliferated. Majority of the consumer wants to buy only the songs they want, and play them anytime and anywhere as often as they want, all because music as a medium is more or less an enjoyable distraction away from a boring task being performed, such as exercising, cleaning, driving, doing the laundry, etc. This is also the reason that higher quality audio devices are now all geared toward home theatre surround sound systems.
Movies and films, on the other hands, is a medium primarily of a dedicated experience enjoyed by the consumers, where portability is not of much relevance when it comes to video quality. In the old CRT TV days, a 32" 4:3 tube TV was already considered "large" and most household owned sets of 25" or smaller. Today, 32" to 50" HDTVs are of common site in stores. There is a reason why the public is buying larger and larger HDTV's, because video quality is important since one cannot fully enjoy movies and films while driving or doing the laundry...
If downloading video services would over take next generation HD video formats in the future, it would have already killed DVD rentals, just like how MP3 downloads killed CD sales... After all, SD video resolution material such as DVD is much easier, faster, and more convenience to achieve sucess with downloading services, because the medium requires so much less bandwidth and storage space than any next generation HiDef video formats. If downloading movie servies have not already caught on and killed DVD rentals, then it would never take off in the future when the competition is Bluray rentals from BlockBuster....
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