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.
_thumbnail.jpg "Vintage Keyboards")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
acme said 6:42PM on 7-09-2008
I don't listen to the radio AT ALL, HD or not. screw hd
Reply
Smoke_Dawg_187 said 7:36PM on 7-09-2008
Yeah, I hate the NAB so I don't listen to radio much. I love both Sirius and XM. Although I must say I really enjoy the Adam Carolla show.
Reply
bickin said 8:14PM on 7-09-2008
i think alot has to do with of the cost u can have an hd radio but u also have to get the antana put in as well and that can run u 300 too 500 $$$ i would love to have but that is to much money an if u don't have an hd radio then even more money
Reply
Greg said 10:18PM on 7-09-2008
My next car radio will be HD-capable. I'm going to probably buy one in the next few months.
Reply
flink said 9:16AM on 7-10-2008
I stopped listening to broadcast radio when the XMPCR came out.
I've recently stopped using that, too. Now, I listen to Pandora.
Reply
Leonardo DiCrapio said 1:02PM on 7-10-2008
Hmmm... maybe it's because SiriusXM and the car companies want you to pay a ridiculous (100-200%) mark-up for a radio and then pay a monthly fee for service. Of course the radios are really marked up even more (300-400%) because the car companies are either given the radios for free or the radios are sold to them at about half of SXM's cost).
Reply
Bob said 2:22PM on 7-10-2008
I'll usually tune in to traffic reports but podcasts or MP3s fill the rest of my commute. There is no dial surfing and I know the content is desirable. FM music stations are dead.
Reply
Chad said 4:33PM on 7-10-2008
I like listening to the local stations to and from work because of the personalities and getting news relevant to my local. You don't get that with the current canned stations that just play music and ads. I've wanted to switch to an HD radio fro some time but when the least expensive box I can find for my desk at work is over $100 I can't really justify the cost. I can't imagine AM or even FM was comparably expensive when they first came out. Perhaps an HD radio consortium could subsidize the cost of entry and get the hardware manufacturers to drop prices a tad. At least if they really want the format to take off.
Reply
rotonell said 4:32PM on 7-16-2008
After reading your opinions on HD-R recently I thought you might find this of interest. In a recent Reuters articles entitled, “HD Digital Radio Alliance Expands Marketing Campaign to Convert Consumer Awareness...” An HD Alliance spokesman claims an exponential growth in traffic to HDRadio.com. I feel this statement maybe misleading, after all if they had 1 hit in 2006 and then 7 hits in 2008 isn’t that exponential growth? Without actual numbers who knows what they mean and what happened to’07?
“The Alliance also revealed that traffic to HDRadio.com continues to grow exponentially, with the number of page views so far in 2008 exceeding that of 2006, the site's first year.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS86566+30-Jun-2008+PRN20080630
This started me thinking Google Trends (G/T) charts how often a particular search term is entered relative the total search volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages. I understand this is not a definitive method but in the absence of actual numbers it could be a rough indicator of actual interest. Look what happens when you use G/T to look up the site www.hdradio.com:
“Your terms - www.hdradio.com - do not have enough search volume to show graphs.”
http://www.google.com/trends?q=www.hdradio.com&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Then I thought, “Who googles a web address”? But, if you try www.ipod.com, www.sirius.com or www.xmradio.com they all come back graphed with results. I think the HD spinster may be laying it on a bit thick I find it hard to believe that www.hdradio.com generates no G/T data yet they’ve had “meaningful” growth over two years. To be fair HD radio does create Gtrend data but it includes both pro and con sites in its data set. It seems to me hdradio.com is actually HDOA. I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes well know that the NAB tries to artificially influence Gtrends.
Reply
Johhny said 12:08PM on 9-11-2008
Is HD radio really worth the cost. This site says consumer reports claims yes, but I read conflicting things. http://www.hdradioreview.com
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Reply