Who is offering what off on Black Friday is one of those things that we journos obsess over each and every year. And this year we've seen an interesting divergence in what
If the example of Apple’s Australian store is consistent with what its American store will do, Apple’s Black Friday sale will actually only be a gift card promotion. As 9to5 Mac predicted yesterday, the setup at the Apple Store tomorrow will be like its recent Back to School campaign but feature Apple Store cards instead of iTunes cards with purchases. As you can see in the example from the Australian store above, the Apple Store gift cards will vary in amount based on the product purchased. Australia crossed the date line at 8am EST, giving us a glimpse into the sale Apple is launching in the U.S. at midnight PST.
Over here in Europe though it's the more usual cash off style offers. In the UK it's £25 off an iPad 2, £81 off either as MacBook Pro or the MacBook Pro with Retina. Which is slightly odd that they have the same amount of cash off despite their different original prices. Clearly they've not just applied some standard discount to the products. Indeed, these discounts could be described as genteel....possibly even miserly.
Very much the same at Apple Germany, €31 off an iPad 2 and €101 off the two variants of the MacBook Pro. Strangely, these numbers are different from the British discounts as well. €101 is £84 or so, not £ 81. But we do finally find some consistency, the discounts at Apple France are the same as they are at Apple Germany.
I'm not sure I can work out how they've calculated their various discounts but it is true that over here in Europe it is indeed money off rather than the gift vouchers you're getting over there in the US and Oz.
