Apple Watch Price Cut To $49 At Best Buy
Customers who buy an iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus from Best Buy will be able to score an Apple Watch for a mere $49.
Apple Watch, Tag Heuer: 7 Most Expensive Smartwatches
Apple Watch, Tag Heuer: 7 Most Expensive Smartwatches (Click image for larger view and slideshow.)
Best Buy kicked off an attractive offer for the Apple Watch over the weekend. The already-discounted wearable is available on the cheap, as long as you're also in the market for a new iPhone.
Apple dropped the price of various Apple Watch models by $50 back in November when bundled with an iPhone purchase. It later made that price cut permanent. In March, Apple trimmed the price another $50, making the 38mm Apple Watch Sport $299.
Best Buy is taking the price cuts a step further. Customers who buy, lease, or activate a new iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus with a contract or monthly installment plan can earn a $250 discount on any Apple Watch. That means the 38mm Apple Watch Sport is $49, while the 42mm size is $99, and so on up the product range. The deal is compatible with iPhones running on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless, but not T-Mobile.
Apple's smartwatch is one of the wearable industry's best sellers.
The promotion began June 18 and runs through June 25. The discounted Apple Watch is available online and in Best Buy's retail stores. (Of course, $250 off the $17,000 Watch Edition isn't much of a discount.)
Make no mistake about it, Best Buy is clearly looking to get rid of Apple Watch and iPhone inventory ahead of the September refresh cycle.
[Check out how the Apple Watch has changed since it debuted.]
Apple debuted the Apple Watch in the fall of 2014, but the device didn't go on sale until April 2015. Apple pushed a significant update to the operating system in September 2015, but the hardware has been unchanged since April 2015.
Industry watchers have long expected Apple to update the Watch hardware this September alongside new iPhones. With new Watch variants and iPhones on desk, Best Buy and other retailers will be looking to deplete whatever stock they have on hand to make room for the new equipment.
There's almost no word on what changes are in store for the next Apple Watch. It would make sense for Apple to update the processor and other components, and possibly add support for cellular connections.
If consumers are lucky, Apple will leave the strap ecosystem untouched -- meaning existing straps would work with the new Watch. Pricing will probably be similar to the original.
As for the iPhone 7, well, there's no shortage of rumors there.
Some believe it will have Intel inside. It may have more storage built in, an OLED display, dual cameras, and four speakers.
Apple has beefed up its security to stop leaks, so absolutely nothing about the iPhone 7 is known with certainty.
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