Black Friday just delivered the best Apple deals of the year, with brand-new products hitting record-low prices. Apple's latest AirPods Pro 3 are down to $219.99, while the just-launched M5 MacBook Pro starts at $1,399 - confirming this holiday shopping season is delivering unprecedented savings on premium tech gear that rarely sees meaningful discounts.
Black Friday 2025 is rewriting the rules for Apple discounts. The company's newest hardware - typically immune from meaningful price cuts for months after launch - is seeing record-low pricing just weeks after hitting shelves. Apple's recently launched AirPods Pro 3, which debuted in September with heart rate monitoring and improved noise cancellation, are now available for $219.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. That's $30 off the $249 MSRP and marks the first significant discount on Apple's flagship earbuds. The timing suggests Apple is betting big on holiday volume over margin protection. Industry analysts note this aggressive early discounting pattern represents a shift from Apple's traditionally conservative pricing strategy, likely driven by intensified competition in the premium audio space from Sony and Bose. But it's not just earbuds seeing cuts. Apple's M5-powered MacBook Pro 14-inch, which launched just last month with the company's latest silicon promising 3.5x faster AI performance, is already down to $1,399.99 at Amazon. The $200 discount on a laptop that typically holds its value for six months post-launch signals how competitive the laptop market has become, with Windows manufacturers flooding the zone with AI-capable machines. The M5 chip marks a significant leap in on-device AI processing, making this deal particularly compelling for creative professionals and developers. Even more surprising is seeing the brand-new Apple Watch Series 11 discounted to $339 at major retailers. The watch features Apple's first 5G cellular modem and a display that's twice as durable as its predecessor, yet it's seeing $60 discounts despite launching in September. Last-generation products are seeing even steeper cuts that push prices into impulse-buy territory. The Apple Watch SE (second-gen) has dropped to just $129 at Walmart - a $120 discount that brings Apple's budget smartwatch closer to fitness tracker pricing. Similarly, the M3 iPad Air has fallen to $449 at multiple retailers, making Apple's mid-tier tablet more accessible than ever. The deeper discounts on older inventory suggest Apple is aggressively clearing channel inventory ahead of potential spring refreshes. According to supply chain reports, the company is preparing significant hardware updates across multiple product lines for early 2025, including redesigned iPads and updated AirPods models. These Black Friday prices represent the sweet spot for consumers who don't need bleeding-edge features but want proven Apple hardware. The deals pattern reveals Apple's evolving strategy in an increasingly competitive premium device market. Where the company once relied on brand loyalty and ecosystem lock-in to maintain pricing power, it's now using strategic discounting to drive volume and market share gains. The move mirrors what happened in the smartphone market, where even premium Android manufacturers regularly discount flagship devices within months of launch. For consumers, this represents the new normal - Apple hardware becoming more affordable, more quickly. The question is whether these aggressive discounts help Apple maintain its premium brand positioning or gradually erode the exclusivity that drives demand.
