Dell shares are down today after a disappointing Black Friday weekend at Best Buy stores. A survey of 35 PC experts indicates that salespeople prefer HP to Dell by a margin of 5 to 1, and that Dell is the only brand at Best Buy with negative comments–pointing to potential quality issues.
Apple’s Black Friday discounts are less than some analysts had expected, though they’re pretty much in line with what was offered last year. Many retailers are offering deeper discounts, but Apple stores are price-matching. Some expected that Apple, with its strong cash position and favorable production pricing costs, would offer more to a vulnerable consumer base. There will be no iPhone discount today.
Good news for shoppers, bad news for retailers. Apple’s Black Friday discount could be up to 15 percent, compared to 5-10 percent. Retailers will be the ones suffering for it, though, not Apple. The ability of Apple products to attract shoppers into stores and turn them into buyers–especially of high-margin products–is likely the reason retailers are willing to take the hit.
It would appear that Wal-Mart’s lawyers need to come up with excuses to keep billing Wal-Mart every year around this time. Despite the fact that Wal-Mart employees admit that sites posting “Black Friday Ads” help drive more business, Wal-Mart’s hired guns keep threatening sites for posting the ads, falsely claiming a copyright on the content (hint: you can’t copyright prices).
This is a section of the All Things Digital Web site featuring posts from around the Web, from other Dow Jones properties and also original pieces we solicit. The section is now explicitly labeled that it comes "from other Web sites."
We are fully aware of the controversies around how linking and aggregating is done on the Web and we, in no way, are attempting to "scrape" original content created by others. Instead, regarding third-party posts, we are trying to point readers of this site to other posts from around the Web that we admire and are trying to do so in the quickest manner possible.
The Internet is full of terrific content that is not ours and we want to help our readers find it by making editorial suggestions--Look, Mom, no algorithm!--of posts we think are worth their time.
That is why we have made even more changes to Voices to ensure we do this in the most transparent and timely way. While we don't expect that everyone will agree with our policies, we have made changes that reflect our intent in pointing to content outside our site.
So here is exactly what we do: Read more »
Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media. But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media. We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate. We will offer lots of opinion and analysis, but plenty of fact as well.
D is unlike any other executive conference. Since its debut in 2003, D has brought to life the energy and excitement of the digital revolution in an unscripted, upfront and unparalleled way. Read more »
Don't miss a post! Sign up for our Daily Email and get AllThingsD.com delivered each day.
Get columns, blogs and video from D and All Things Digital on your iPhone. Download now »
