November 18, 2009
BGR obtained that Apple flier which indicates a price drop of up to 30% on all iPods, and up to 25% on all Macs!
If this report from BGR is correct, Apple will be heavily discounting its iPods and Macs next week. And if this is the case – and checks at retailers seem to confirm that – you’d better wait one more week if you plan to purchase an Apple product.
From the flier:
- Up to 30% off on all iPods, including iPod Touch which could fetch at around $150; consistent with the Walmart promotion;
- Up to 30% off on all Macs;
- Up to 15% off on all accessories, Apple software and hardware (including the new wireless Magic mouse).
10 Comments | 
hardware, news, Price Watch, software | Tagged: Apple, iPod | 
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Posted by TechPulse 360
November 18, 2009
Price war is finally coming to the portable GPS market
We’re finally seeing some action in the portable GPS market.
While hovering mostly at over $100 for most of the year – even during last year’s Black Friday sales – prices for portable GPS devices are now dropping like a rock.
Yesterday, we reported that Walmart will be selling a Tom Tom branded device for $59.
But today, you can get a cheap GPS device without lining up at 4AM with thousands of other people at Fry’s, which offers a Roadmax portable GPS for $69.
And if this second-tier brand isn’t any good, you can still return it before Black Friday and try to get the Tom Tom one!
Leave a Comment » | hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: Fry's, GPS, roadmax, tomtom, walmart | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
November 17, 2009
For Black friday next week, Walmart will slash $100 off Sanyo's 50" Plasma TV price, that now retails for $698
A CNNMoney.com report revealed some of Walmart’s amazing “doorbusters” planned for next week’s Black Friday.
TVs/Blu-ray
- Sanyo 50-inch plasma 720p HDTV for $598;
- Emerson 32-inch LCD 720p HDTV for $248;
- Emerson 42-inchPlasma 720p HDTV ($448)
- Magnavox Blu-ray player for $78;
Computers
- eMachine laptop with a 15.6-inch LCD display, 2GB memory and 160GB hard drive for $198;
- Hewlett-Packard laptop with a 15.6-inch display, 3GB memory and 250GB hard drive for $298;
Electronics
- iPod Touch 8GB for $195 with a $50 iTunes gift card;
- Tom Tom GPS for $59;
Best Buy, Target and perhaps Fry’s are going to have a hard time to beat Walmart prices. I don’t have much hope for the other “smaller” retailers like Office Depot, OfficeMax and the likes.
Moreover, Wal-Mart will match the price of any local competitor’s printed ad for an identical product.
7 Comments | computers, hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: Apple, best buy, emachines, emerson, Fry's, hp, iPod, officedepot, officemax, sanyo, tomtom, walmart | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
November 16, 2009
Price war is all the rage in retail this holiday season and that’s really benefiting us, the consumers.
Today, Fry’s is advertising the same $138 Sony Blu-Ray player (HDMI, upscaling, BD-Live, Ethernet and USB ports) it did over the weekend.
But this time around, the electronics retailer is bundling the player with a choice of 2 Blu-Ray movies, a $25 value, putting the Sony device effectively at $113. That’s almost 20% off in 2 days!
Last month, Best Buy was already selling its branded Insignia player for under a $100.
But get ready to see some amazing deals (all under $100) for premium brand BD players next week, on Black Friday.
1 Comment | hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: best buy, Blu-Ray, Fry's, Insignia, Sony | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
November 13, 2009
After a couple weeks hiatus, hard disk drive prices are heading downwards again.
Fry’s is now offering Western Digital’s Element 1.5TB external USB drive for under $100. That’s about $66 per terabyte. A better deal than the already low $78 price tag for SimpleTech’s 1TB drive.
WD beats Seagate on low price
Our last check on the external 1.5TB drive category showed a Seagate disk for $125.
On the same page today, Fry’s is advertising Seagate’s 1.5TB internal drive for $100; still more expensive than Samsung’s 1.5TB drive that sold for $80 in early October!
For next week’s Black Friday, I expect most of the drive makers to align their price to Western Digital’s and perhaps to go as low as $100 for an external 2TB drive or a whopping $50 a terabyte. Currently, an external 2TB drive costs about $170.
1 Comment | hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: Fry's, seagate, simpletech, wd, western digital | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
November 9, 2009
Hitachi and Seagate are the price leaders in the 2TB internal drive category
At the current pace, an internal 2TB drive will cost under $100 in about 6 months.
So by the same time next year, it will be as hard to find 1TB drives as it today for 500GB! And I won’t be surprised to find some Black Friday deals for 2TB drives (internal or external) close to the $100 barrier.
Interestingly, the 1.5TB drive category didn’t really had time to establish itself in the market, squeezed by the super low cost 1TB drives and the 2TB drives.
In the 2TB internal drive category, Hitachi – which also owns the low-cost Simpletech brand – and Seagate are the price leaders. For 1TB internal drives, Western Digital is still the company to beat at less than $60.
2 Comments | hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: hitachi, seagate, simpletech, wdc, western digital | Permalink
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November 2, 2009
First major brand GPS at such a low price
Just like the Insignia Blu-ray disc player a week ago, this is the first time I remember seeing a GPS from a major brand – in this case Motorola – for such a low price: $79 at Target.com with free shipping (almost half the original price!).
So far the big brands like Garmin, Magellan or TomTom managed to keep prices relatively high, at around $100.
Again, this bodes well for the Thanksgiving week where I anticipate GPS devices to go as low as $50, even through online retailers. At this price, there will be no reason not to have one in your car!
Leave a Comment » | hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: Garmin, GPS, magellan, motorola, target, tomtom | Permalink
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October 26, 2009
First Blu-ray disc player to sell for less than $100. More to come on Black Friday
This is the first time I see a Blu-ray disc player to sell for less than $100.
Even from a private label brand like Insignia, Best Buy’s exclusive brand. This summer, Best Buy was selling Insignia Blu-ray disc for about $170.
My guess is that we’ll see more Blu-ray disc players – even from major Asian brands – sell for under $100 during Black Friday week sales. So if you were thinking of getting one, I suggest to hold your purchase and wait 5 more weeks. If you can of course!
Leave a Comment » | hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: bestbuy, bluray.blu-ray, Insignia | Permalink
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October 12, 2009
Western Digital is the price leader for 1TB disk drives!
If you think of it, that’s just 6 cents per gigabyte - 5 years ago it was almost 20 times that!
With a 1TB bare-bone (internal) disk drive at less than $60 at Fry’s Electronics, Western Digital (WD) is the absolute low price leader… for this week! The same drive cost $20 more a couple weeks ago.
The other notable price decrease since last week is a 2TB serial ATA/300 now at $160 ($10 less than Seagate) by Hitachi.
I also was impressed by the low price of the Kingston 64GB Solid-State Drive (SSD) that now only costs $100. I would recommend one in a heart beat: I revived my old MacBook with a 80GB Kingston SSD and is now doing most of the video post-production (importing, editing and exporting)!
2 Comments | computers, hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: hitachi, seagate, wd | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
October 6, 2009
An external 2TB disk drive from SimpleTech is only $10 more than its internal equivalent from Seagate
Disk drive prices simply defy gravity… and probably economics too!
Looking at Fry’s Electronics daily ads in the San Jose Mercury News, I couldn’t help but being amazed at how quickly disk drives prices are plunging on a weekly, if not daily basis.
Today, the best value for an internal drive, is the 1.5TB 3.5″ Samsung drive at only $80. If you prefer an external drive, SimpleTech’s 2TB Duo Pro Drive Quad (Firewire, eSATA and USB) is hard to beat at only $180. And an external 2TB Seagate desktop drive will cost you $180.
If that’s still too much, I’m sure you can still find SimpleTech’s 1TB external drive for under $90 or its internal cousin (from Hitachi) at $85!
For laptops, Hitachi is still the king of the hill with a 500GB notebook hard drive at just $80 (and just $10 more on Amazon). I also liked Seagate’s 1.5TB Expansion drive for $125, although it’s only $5 more at Amazon with free shipping.
Really no matter where you buy your drive, you’ll almost certain to get a bargain. Happy shopping!
Leave a Comment » | computers, hardware, news, Price Watch | Tagged: Amazon, Fry's, hitachi, seagate, simpletech | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360
