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.
No, folks -- this is no prank. Time Warner Cable really is throwing caution (and public opinion) to the wind and moving forward with its evil consumption-based internet billing. If you'll recall, we heard that the operator was trialing the method -- which imposes premium rates on big broadband users -- back in early 2008, but now it seems it's quietly hoping to roll it out into more major markets. Starting this month, TWC will start gathering information on its customers' internet use in Austin, TX, San Antonio, TX, Rochester, NY and Greensboro, NC; if all goes "well," consumption billing will hit those markets this summer or sooner. We'll point you to the read link if you're interested in just how outrageous these capped plans look (particularly for internet TV viewers), but we'd be remiss of our duties if we didn't share this gem of a quote from TWC CEO Glenn Britt: "We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension." Thanks for clarifying, Glenn-o.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
birthday is 1990 said 5:31PM on 4-02-2009
Can't wait for them to get sued and go out of business.
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Roy said 7:11PM on 4-07-2009
This Time Warner's way of saying "oh so you want to watch tv online instead of the traditional way. We'll just find a way to charge you for that. Hey guys lets bill them by the gigabyte, $1 per GB that seems fair compared to the 5cents we pay!" SMH Buncha rapists!
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Michael said 4:21AM on 4-03-2009
Unfortunately, I am a current Time Warner customer living in San Antonio, Tx however it won't be for long. This is ridiculous and I hope that Glenn Britt crashes and burns in his new role as CEO. I'm already looking elsewhere for not only broadband, but for my cable service as well because of this. They should take example from phone companies like Cricket and Pocket, which more and more people have been switching to, because capped plans is something that consumers in today's age no longer want or will tolerate. I personally will be boycotting Time Warner and will be spreading the word that everybody needs to switch. I hope that they lose so much business that they realize what a mistake they are making and I hope that they read this!
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Belle said 9:48AM on 4-03-2009
In England a company named NTL also tried consumption based billing. There was such outrage, customers were canceling
their service with NTL. Within ONE month NTL reversed their new billing policy. If EVERY TW customer effected by this new
billing scheme cancels their service, then it will hit TW where it truely hurts, their wallets. But it will take everyone biting the bullet and canceling service for it to be effective. Also, a supervisor named Iris Andrews is someone we can all call and complain too about this outrageous change in terms. We spoke to her last night for 30 minutes. Just call 336-584-1383 and get through to a representative, tell them you need to speek to Iris Andrews, and you should be connected shortly. If we dont stand together in this then TW will keep looking for new and inventative ways to charge us for services that we already pay out the wa-zoo for!
UNITED WE STAND!!!!!
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Frank Werthe said 8:55PM on 4-05-2009
This is about control and with that control squeezing every dime possible. Everything my kids do is on the web. School reports are now required in PowerPoint they have MySpace and Face book accounts for the class. I tried a bandwidth monitor on my son's online gaming .79GB in 3hrs. My afternoon comparing products before a purchase 135mb [yes I watch the flash videos]. My antivirus just popped up with a 17mb download [free update] we subscribe to online newspapers, not for long with the size of the videos. Oh I forgot the Microsoft .Net 3.5 update is 350MB x 4 computers. God help you with online backup or Vista. Time Warner’s own web site videos and audio load over 400mb if you look at everything. TW own site touts high-speed for super large downloads! Video on demand! Music and Games! How about the military families depending on streaming video from loved ones overseas? Everything we do is connected to the internet and oh yeah I seem to remember HIGH DEF INTERNET IS ON THE WAY. High Def is 10 times larger than standard so how is any one going to see a video clip that’s larger than their monthly allotment?
They want to charge each site we go to like Sears, Wal-Mart, EBay Google, or CNN a fee like they tried in England. What's worse we paid for the infrastructure through taxes and fees and they have been getting tax exemptions for years! TW want us to howl loud so we’ll accept giant rate increases instead of a meter or maybe just a little more bandwidth please. They are doing this during the worst recession in decades why? THEY HAVE A MONOPOLY AND THEY INTEND TO USE IT!
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Jim said 1:33PM on 4-15-2009
Their service is mediocre at best. I'm constantly having to unplug my cable modem or my cable box to reset them. Now they have the audacity to pull this stunt?
Today they called me asking me if I wanted to lock in a rate for two years. The representative was stunned to find out about this plan. So it's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
I've been looking for one more reason to drop Time-Warner and switch to a satellite dish for my TV and someone else for my internet access. They gave me that reason.
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LUCCI said 2:38AM on 4-20-2009
EMBARK....OR CLEARWIRE OR ANYBODY ELSE....HERE I COME!!!!! TIME WARNER YOU ARE SOOOO FOUL FOR THAT SHIT.
LUCCI (future former twc customer)
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