Target, Walmart and Staples are preparing for a mass flood of shoppers the day after Thanksgiving. However, Best Buy has stood out among many consumers due to the expectation of personal electronics and house appliances to be included in the sales.
The ad detailing Black Friday offers finally leaked via a website featuring holiday listings from multiple retailers. ...
Gottadeal.com, one of the oldest Black Friday websites, has leaked the first Black Friday ads for the upcoming holiday shopping season just last week. With Black Friday 2011 approaching in just a few weeks, consumers are undoubtedly scouring the Web for the best deals and price mark-downs of the season. The website, founded in 2003, opens every year from September to December. Gottadeal.com helps consumers find exactly what they are looking for by obtaining leaked copies of sale advertisements and publishing them for users to browse, and attracts millions of visitors each year. ...
Upcoming Black Friday 2011, the day after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day in the US. Many stores are offering deep discounts on their items, even bigger than their normal clearance sales. Big ticket items such as computer, laptops, cellphones, flat screen TVs and gaming consoles are up for grabs at fantastic prices. However, the competition can be just as big as the discounts. If you want to catch a particular deal or item, you’ll have to prepare for it. With a little bit of preparation, you can snag that item you truly want....
Note: Cross posted from Black Friday Deals - The Official Black Friday 2011.“The greatest gift we can give our customers this holiday is great low prices on the things they want most,” explained Duncan Mac Naughton, chief merchandising officer, Walmart U.S. “Walmart is easing shopping stress this Christmas by allowing customers to shop when and how they want, all while guaranteeing low prices through the entire holiday season.”
Walmart’s Christmas Price Guarantee is valid on purchases made Nov. 1 through Dec. 25 on identical items (the same brand, size, color, quantity, grade and model number) that are currently available at competitor’s stores located within the same local market as a particular Walmart storei. To apply for the Christmas Price Guarantee, customers need to simply bring in their original Walmart cash register receipt and the local competitor’s current printed ad to Walmart’s Customer Service desk through Dec. 25. Once validated, a gift card for the difference will be issued. Items placed on layaway will also be eligible for the Christmas Price Guarantee.
“We’re confident Walmart will have fantastic prices on a wide assortment of gifts from electronics to toys, so customers can shop early and spend the holiday enjoying time with their families,” continued Mac Naughton.
Walmart’s Christmas Price Guarantee, combined with our additional holiday offerings, is aimed at helping our customers beat the holiday’s economic Grinch and ensure no Christmas is stolen:
Walmart will also help guarantee Christmas for local nonprofits and the families they serve. With help from the Walmart Foundation, Walmart stores across the U.S. will donate more than $10 million to community organizations this holiday season.
About Walmart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week at over 9,700 retail units under 69 different banners in 28 countries. With fiscal year 2011 sales of $419 billion, Walmart employs 2.1 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://walmartstores.com and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.
iiInterest will be charged to a cardholder’s account from the purchase date if the promotional balance is not paid in full within 6 months. Minimum monthly payments required and may pay off purchase(s) before end of promo period. Gas purchases excluded. Offer subject to credit approval and cannot be combined with any other offer. Promotional purchase and related optional credit insurance/debt cancellation charges must be paid in full within 6 months. If not, interest charges will be assessed on the promotional balance from the date of purchase. For new accounts: variable purchase APRs as of 10/1/2011 are 16.90%, 19.90% or 22.90% and will vary with the market based on the prime rate. Minimum interest charge is $1.00. Certificate required in-store for first purchase only.
iiiIn order to participate, each item must have a price of $15 or more, customers must have a total minimum layaway purchase of $50, make a 10% down payment on the total purchase, and pay a one-time non-refundable $5 service fee. Items put on layaway must be paid in full and picked up on or before Dec. 16. There is a $10 cancellation fee for any orders not picked up by that date or cancelled by the customer. Cancellation fees and service fees may vary by state. Contract wireless phones are not eligible for the layaway program.
ivDiscounts will also be honored for those using Walmart Gift Cards, Walmart Prepaid, Walmart Discover, Walmart Credit Card and the Associate Paycard. Murphy cards, cash or any other form of payment, will not receive the discount. Murphy USA and Walmart fuel stations in Oklahoma and Minnesota will not participate in this program. Stores in Alabama will remain on their current program with the following change: the current $0.05 per gallon Discover and Walmart GE credit card rebate is being raised to $0.10 per gallon. This change is effective June 30. No other portions of the current Alabama program are changing. Stores in Florida will have the following changes: the current $0.05 per gallon rollback at the pump for Discover and Walmart GE credit card purchases, will change to a $0.10 per gallon rebate on the customer’s credit card statement. The $0.03 per gallon rollback at the pump for Gift Card purchases has been increased to $0.05 per gallon. The $0.03 rollback at the pump for MoneyCard purchases has been increased to $0.05 per gallon. And the Associate Paycard will have a $0.05 per gallon rollback at the pump. These changes are effective June 30. Stores that are located on site with a Sam’s Club station will not participate in the increased discount program.
It’s a Christmas nightmare for shoppers: They buy a present or something nice for their family and three weeks later find it on sale somewhere else. Bah, humbug!
This year, Walmart turns that nightmare into a holiday dream with the Christmas Price Guarantee. Here’s how it works: If a customer buys an eligible product at Walmart anytime between Nov. 1 and Dec. 25, and then finds that same product advertised for less at another store, Walmart will give the customer a gift card for the difference through Dec. 25. Guaranteed.
Note: Cross posted from Black Friday Deals - The Official Black Friday 2011.While some are hesitant to cross over to the darkside and giving up their freedom with a smartphone, there’s no denying that they’re becoming the norm for most cell phone users. Unfortunately, when it comes time to choosing one, the choices can be pretty overwhelming.
Carrier
Many phones are carrier specific. This means certain phone models are bound to one cell service provider. In the past, this has caused quite a stir, particularly with the iPhone, as it was once bound solely to AT&T. It has since been made available on the Verizon network, though there are significant differences in the two phones. If you live in an area that has bad AT&T coverage, you may want to look into getting a phone on Verizon or T-Mobile. You can do a search online for cell phone coverage by provider in your city to help you make your decision.
Operating System
Smart phones are essentially mini-computers, and thus each comes with its own unique operating system. Currently there are about seven operating systems available: Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry, Symbian, and webOS.
Android: Available on a wide variety of phones across multiple carriers, Android is Google’s operating system and currently the most popular smartphone platform in the world. It syncs with your Gmail account, which is required to use the OS, and features a number of Google features such as Google Maps.
iOS: Native only to Apple mobile devices such as the iPhone and the iPad, iOS is based on the Mac OS X operating system, and thus an ideal platform for those already familiar with the nuances of Apple’s operating system.
Windows Mobile: Windows Mobile was an operating system developed by Microsoft, but with the introduction of Windows 7 smartphones, Windows Mobile has fell into disuse and is rarely found on newer phones.
Windows Phone 7: The Successor to Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7 is a brand new interface that places a focus on total integration. Early reviews have been positive, though some have complained about its lack of certain ”deal-breaking” functions, such as multitasking.
Blackberry: The BlackBerry OS, designed by Research in Motion, is available only on BlackBerry devices. While popular among some, it is found primarily in corporate settings due to its support for corporate email and synchronization with popular pieces of software such as Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise.
Symbian: Symbian is a proprietary operating system designed for use on Nokia smartphones. Like Windows Mobile, Nokia will be migrating to Windows Phone 7. As such, most new consumer phones won’t have Symbian installed.
webOS: Developed by Palm and acquired by Hewlett-Packard, webOS is a Linux-based operating system found on a small set of smartphones and the HP TouchPad. On August 18, 2011, however, it was announced that production on all webOS devices and software would be stopped.
With most new pieces of software, the best thing to do is ”try before you buy.” Spend some time in the store playing with each time of phone available to see what operating system suits your needs. Most carriers allow a grace period where you can return or exchange the phone if you don’t like it.
Speed
Most smartphones are pretty fast, with many of the newer models containing processors that clock in at around 1 GHz or more. Most new smartphones that use Android, such as those made by Samsung and HTC, are some of the fastest on the market. While faster is clearly better, the performance of a smartphone is often less dependent on the speed of its processor than the number of programs running in the background.
Storage
Smartphones come with varying storage sizes, with some clocking in as high as 32GB (iPhone) and others as low as 512MB. On most smartphones, however, storage expansion in the form of microSD cards and other memory formats, are available. If you’re a fan of watching movies or storing music on your phone (as a substitute MP3 player), then you would want to go with one with lots of storage.
Size
Most smartphones are small enough to fit in the front pocket of your jeans, with some of the larger ones, such as the Droid X, are slim enough to compensate for the added size. The average smartphone screen size is around 3.7”, with the low end clocking in at around 3.2” and the high at 4.3”
Features
Smartphone features are often dependent on the brand of the phone and the operating system. Do you prefer a physical or a virtual keyboard? A good camera? Tethering ability (sharing an internet connection on a phone with other Wi-Fi enabled devices)? Bluetooth? FM Radio? The options are endless, and while every phone comes with a wide variety of features, each one should be researched fully before making a final decision.
Applications
One of the deciding factors for many smartphone buyers are the availability of applications. Currently the Apple App Store and the Android Market are the two most popular, with over 500,000 and 200,000 apps available, respectively. Many websites offer applications to take their website ”on the go,” though these are often limited to certain operating systems, primarily Android, iOS, and Blackberry.
Battery Life
With most smartphones, the battery life is typically dependent on your settings and how many applications you have running at any given moment. Over time the amount of power the battery can hold will diminish. Many new smartphones have faced criticism over their supposed lackluster battery life, with many claiming they can’t hold a charge beyond a single day’s use.
Bottom Line
Smartphones can be a tricky beast, though if you’re inclined to stay caught up with the latest gadgets and technologies while taking advantage of the many options available, then stick with an iPhone or an Android-based phone. While the iPhone remains pretty much the same each year, new Android phones by various companies (Motorola, Samsung, etc) are being released every year, so make sure you do your research. What was the best three months ago might not be the case today.
Note: Cross posted from Black Friday Deals - The Official Black Friday 2011.John Stuart has been chained to his BlackBerry for years, first as a systems manager for Wall Street bank Morgan Stanley and then as chief information officer for Beverly Hills Wealth Management.
But this week, Stuart ordered an iPhone from Apple Inc, ending his 7-year relationship with BlackBerry maker Research in Motion. His move highlights how even security-conscious banks and IT managers, who have been among RIM's most loyal customers, are starting to defect, lured by improvements in rivals that challenge the BlackBerry's much-vaunted safety features.
"RIM has always been at the top of their game when it comes to device management. Apple has caught up," Stuart said.
The BlackBerry has been losing ground in the business market to the iPhone and, to a lesser extent, devices running Google Inc's Android software, as companies gradually allowed their employees to choose their own mobile devices.
This week's massive BlackBerry network outage, which spanned four continents, is likely to speed up RIM's decline, analysts said.
Many banks already allow employees to choose their devices and the BlackBerry outage is likely to push more in that direction, according to Julie McNelly, an analyst with Aite Group, who advises financial institutions on data security.
"The barn door is already open. Most of the horses are already gone," she said. "This could potentially accelerate the process."
The BlackBerry used to own the corporate market because companies believed RIM was best at protecting enterprise data and prevent the theft of corporate secrets.
The outage highlights RIM's Achilles heel: the fact that all BlackBerry messages are routed through its own data centers means information is more secure, but it also creates a single point of potential failure.
Messages sent through phones from Apple and other vendors do not travel through any central network, so they do not have that same weakness.
While that has meant rival phones were less secure in the past, many security experts say the iPhone has caught up to the BlackBerry, thanks to improvements in Apple's latest iOS software. And for Android phones, a proliferation of third party security software have also helped.
"In most ways, iOS is at least as secure as BlackBerry, namely in malware prevention, exploit prevention, etc.," said Charlie Miller, principal research consultant with Accuvant and a highly regarded expert on mobile security.
He said the BlackBerry is still superior in data encryption and manageability, but added that "reliability obviously is a problem recently for Blackberry."
Consumerisation
Apple is a big winner when workers get to pick their own phones, a trend known as the consumerization of IT. The iPhone 4S hit store shelves and thousands of people lined up around the world to get it.
Companies can save money when they let employees buy their own phones and pay their own monthly bills. All IT managers have to do is install software that makes it possible for employees to securely access corporate networks.
At Credit Suisse, which only started this year to open its network to Apple and Android devices, about one-third of its 25,000 BlackBerry users have already switched phones.
That has saved the European bank millions of dollars, according to Stephen Hilton, Credit Suisse's global head of technology infrastructure services.
"We are seeing very rapid adoption of this 'consumer technology' platform," Hilton said. "I suspect this (outage) would be another reason why people may reconsider."
An Aite Group poll of 402 wealth managers conducted before the outage found that 45 percent would choose an iPhone or iPad, compared to 14 per cent for a BlackBerry.
A survey released this week by Enterprise Management Associates, sponsored by Intel Corp's McAfee Inc, found that 44 per cent of iPhone users were "completely satisfied" with their device, compared with 34 per cent for Android smartphones and 16 per cent for BlackBerries.
"It's a tough situation to be in," Forrester Research analyst Christian Kane said of RIM. "Nobody is going to necessarily stop supporting a device over an outage. But it doesn't do any favors for RIM," said Kane, who helps big companies decide how quickly they should open up their mobile networks.
It's a mark of the inroads that rivals have made into the corporate market when this week's BlackBerry outage was shrugged off by many on Wall Street.
One finding of an informal Reuters survey of more than 25 financial firms was that a lot of people simply were not bothered by the service interruption, compared to the panic that ensued when the BlackBerry went down in April 2007 and again in February 2008.
Wells Fargo said some people saw intermittent disruption to some services; at least two regional banks and one investment bank also said problems were irregular at best and limited to only some employees.
One Wall Street banker said he would not have even noticed had his firm's IT department not said something.
"We allow and support a broad range of mobile devices, and expect we will continue to do so. These devices have been stable for a long time, and while we are not happy about the recent outage, we have no immediate plans to discontinue use of the product," a spokeswoman for JPMorgan Chase & Co said in an e-mail.
It is hard to estimate BlackBerry's corporate market share as RIM does not give out much information. But its share of the global smartphone market fell to 11.7 per cent in the second quarter from 13.0 per cent in the first quarter, according to estimates from Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney.
In contrast, Android's share rose to 43.4 per cent from 36.4 per cent, and Apple's rose to 18.2 percent from 16.9 per cent.
Slow economy cannot slow down the shopping season's coming, having covered Black Friday extensively for the past three years, the bargain finders at theblackfridaybargain.com are in a better position than anyone else to offer shopping previews for Black Friday 2011...
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