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No holiday deals for Apple in the UAE?

Grace | Dec 01, 2009 | Comments View Comments

apple-macbook-pro

I woke up at 2:30 am one night and initially only wanted to drink water. Then I glanced at my laptop and opened it – by now you’d think ok, she’s just going to check her email and go back to bed. That would be wrong.

I started opening Twitter and at 2:30 am Dubai time, it’s afternoon/early evening in the US and Canada. Twitter was buzzing and most of the people I follow living in the US were tweeting (discussing) about Cyber Monday. Ok, I know Black Friday but Cyber Monday was perfectly new to me (don’t judge). According to Wikipedia,

Cyber Monday is is a marketing term that refers to the Monday immediately following Black Friday being the busiest day of the year for retail electronic commerce in the United States.

People were talking on Twitter about online deals from all sorts of categories from clothing to electronic gadgets! I couldn’t stop browsing and you guessed it, before I knew it, the sun has already risen. No more bed time!

I wish we would have something like that in the UAE. You know, great shopping deals during Eid, for example. I know there are huge of posters of “SALE” all around town but no deals for Apple products. At least, none that I know of. If you know otherwise, do post about it in the comments, will you?

The Cyber Monday deals for Macs aren’t that much – these beauties really don’t come cheap but buyer’s save as much as $300 when buying a MacBook Pro from an online reseller compared to what Apple. Apple Insider has a Cyber Monday comparison price roundup to show the deals. The discounted prices didn’t go up as far as 25% off the original price as fueled by rumors before the holidays but it’s still a good deal (better than nothing, really)

But because Apple users in the world are the minority, I assume it is the same case as here in the UAE so I guess we couldn’t expect holiday deals like they have in the US.

This is a post made by a freelance blogger. The opinions stated are not necessarily those of Shufflegazine or CENTIMETERCUBE Publishing.

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  • SW1SS
  • They only offer "clearance" sales here. of course they never say it's clearance :)
  • mahdihsn
    Thanks for bringing this up. I always had this annoying question in mind but never found an answer to it.

    I have been an Apple fan and customer for two years and since I began I have never seen any deal or any sort of price drop in the U.A.E. Let alone the fact that all Apple products in Dubai are priced 30% to 50% above the original price. For example, the new Magic Mouse is priced at $69 (AED 250) but iStyle sells it for $100 (AED 379).

    The only time that you might see a reduction in prices of Apple prodcuts is when a newer product is about to be launched. For instance, I got my MacBook Pro (Penryn) in summer 2008 for AED 8,899. At that time mine was the latest model, however, with introduction of Unibody MBP's in the U.S., the price of the exact same model as mine dropped to AED 6,999. That got me pissed off considering the fact that I had got my MBP just six months before. Additionally, last spring, nearly all Apple distributors in Dubai e.g. Virgin, Eon and iStyle were giving 10% discount to students.

    Now I am expecting to see a reduction in the price of Apple Remote as the new aluminium one is yet to arrive to U.A.E. stores. Also, if you still like the good ol' Mighty Mouse, which I doubt it, make sure you keep an eye out on the prices, as both Virgin and iStyle still have them in stock.

    PS. I know you could buy Apple products of off Souq.com or Computer Plaza for a cheaper price but that is a risky path that I would never suggest anyone to take.
  • SW1SS
    The alternative to paying steep UAE prices is to invest some time into setting up an Aramex Shop & Ship account. I, and several work colleagues, have been using this to get Apple supplies for over a year and definitely works out much cheaper.
    Hope that this helps :-)
  • Well, mahdihsn, I'm not sure there's a definitive answer to your question. To be fair, it's not just Apple stuff that's more expensive here, many other premium electronics brands are also more expensive compared to elsewhere.

    One thing I think we can do is highlight these price and service discrepancies as much as possible through Shufflegazine and other places.
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