Every year, like clockwork, techies across South Africa and beyond surface in retail spaces (online or otherwise) to upgrade their age-old dinosaur gadgets for something shinier. Some of the most sought-after of those products bear the Apple logo, and we finally know what iStore South Africa has in store for Black Friday 2020.
As with most things tech, high overheads make it pretty impossible to bring prices down to more… affordable levels. So if you’re expecting massive 70% off slashes on Apple hardware, turn away now. There are some decent deals on smaller pieces of hardware, however.
The iStore ‘Deals’
The only MacBook special worth noting is the MacBook Air (2017 variant with the giant bezels) that’s R15,000, down from R17,000. It’s just a R2,000 saving, but seeing as this guy is already the most affordable notebook in Apple’s arsenal, it’s not a bad buy if you’re looking for an entry-level workstation with the Apple branding. It comes with a 13in display, 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. 
On to smartphones! You can grab an iPhone SE for R9,000, down from R10,000. It’s not a massive saving, but you can get the awesome-looking Product RED variant for the same price, which we think is a deal. It’s also worth noting that you won’t get the power adaptor in the box for this one.
Apple’s older Watch 3 is also on sale, coming in at R4,000 for the 38mm space grey option. You’ll save just R800 on this one, so it may be worth looking out for a second-hand one for half that price.
The only good deals seem to be on kit that doesn’t come in the Apple-packaging. You can get the absolutely brilliant DJI Osmo Mobile 3 for just R1,500. If you’re any type of amateur or professional smartphone-photographer, get one! Then there’s the Ring Video Doorbell V3, selling for R2,000 — half of its normal selling price.
It looks like Black Friday is in full force across the country, and we urge people to do their research before purchasing something that looks like it’s on sale. Safe shopping, fellow South Africans.