Apple, Samsung, Other Tier-1 Brands See Continued Sales Push Into New Year
A hyped and heavily discounted holiday shopping season continued into the new year Wednesday as retailers looked to push out goods remaining on store shelves. Customers looking for Tier-1 headphones and TVs, two categories predicted to be top sellers during the 2018 holiday season, still have plenty of choices, we found.
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Consumers can find TV deals at Abt Electronics, with a Samsung 32-inch UN32J4000EFXZA 720P HDTV priced $177, down from $319, and an RCA RT1970 19-inch 720p TV fell below $100 to $78.23. Sony’s 4K HDR XBR-55X800E was $898, from $1,899 Wednesday. When bundled with the Sony HTX9000F 2.1 Dolby Atmos sound bar, the price for both is $1,297, for a combined $199 savings through Saturday, said the retailer. Also at Abt, Bose SoundSport wireless headphones were the sole CE product featured ($30 off to $119) on a New Year’s Sale landing page that also included a blender, treadmill, furniture, mattress and dishwasher.
Into January, Apple products continue to be discounted at Best Buy in an “Apple Shopping Event.” Consumers can save $50 or $75 on the purchase of select iPads, and the iPhone X is available for $50 off with activation. The retailer is pitching a new MacBook Air for $999, including a maximum $200 trade-in discount. The discount comes as a Best Buy gift card that’s applied toward the purchase of the $1,199 laptop. Elsewhere at Best Buy, JBL wireless headphones are $79, a $20 discount.
The HomePod smart speaker was selling for $249 at Best Buy, a $100 discount. Beats by Dr. Dre Powerbeats headphones, widely discounted since early in the season, continued their half-off sale at $99, and the starter wired urBeats headphones were $60 off to $39. Apple had its own offer of two $25 Apple Store or iTunes gift cards for customers who open a Barclay’s Visa account with Apple Rewards.
Under a headliner for "4K TVs under $250," Best Buy’s Insignia brand with Fire TV led with a 43-inch model for $249, $80 off. In an exclusive, a Sharp 50-inch HDR Roku TV took a $100 shave to $299, bested in price by a 40-inch Roku TV model, sliced by $50 to $199. An LG 50-inch 50UK6090PUA smart 4K TV with HDR was discounted $170 to $329. Samsung’s discounting blitz didn’t stop with the calendar flip: the 43-inch UN43NU6900FXZA was marked down $80 to $299.
Target continued to promote gift cards for smartphone purchases: a $200 card for purchase of the Galaxy S9, S9+ and Note 9, and it pushed a $100 gift card for buying an iPhone XS, XS Max and XR with qualified activation.
While deals remain, some are gone until the next promotional period. Amazon raised the price of its Kindle Fire HD 8, slashed to $49 during Black Friday week, back to $79.