By now, all the big-box stores and major online retailers have revealed their Black Friday deals. As you’d expect, the iPhone does feature, like Sam’s Club’s $100 off iPhone offer. But don’t go planning a trip to a big-box store just yet: The good stuff is yet to come.
None of the big four carriers — T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T — have yet released their Black Friday deals. But based on the historical sales and analyst predictions, they’ll be worth waiting for.
“We suspect the need to maintain net (subscriber) add momentum will drive Sprint and T-Mobile to offer aggressive promotions starting around Black Friday (Nov. 24 following Thanksgiving),” Jeffrey Kvaal, a Nomura-Instinet analyst, wrote in a note seen by Investor’s Business Daily. “We believe competition will heat up after the recent abnormal lull as the holiday selling season begins, the iPhone X becomes available and cable enters the mix,” a UBS analyst also wrote.
There’s some speculation that the Black Friday offers from T-Mobile and Sprint may also include discounts on the iPhone X. I’d guess that we’re not going to see any specific money-off discounts on the iPhone X this Black Friday, since supplies are still limited, and carriers don’t need the help of discounts to sell the phone. However, it’s very possible that we’ll see add-on offers, like a discount on a second (different) iPhone if you buy the iPhone X, or a free year of service. Carriers are mostly interested in offers on phones as a way to keep subscribers or steal customers from other carriers, so those kinds of offer would make sense.
It’s also very possible that we’ll see a discount on the iPhone 7 or iPhone 8. T-Mobile loves doing buy-one-get-one-free promos on phones that are just a month or two old, and it’s very possible that we’ll see something on the iPhone 8 or iPhone 7 for Black Friday this year. With the price of the iPhone X and lack of demand, carriers could definitely push customers to upgrade to a different phone, especially if that means opening a new line of service.
Based on last year, we should see promos from the carriers announced this week, and go live sometime around Black Friday next week.
