Apple has announced that it's having a launch event on Tuesday, November 10, and in a week's time, it could dramatically reshape Black Friday laptop deals in 2020.
The company's surprise 'One more thing' event is widely expected to usher in a new era for Macs, giving us our first look at the rumored MacBook 2020 that uses the previously announced Apple-designed Apple Silicon CPU.
This ARM-based chip is destined to replace Intel processors eventually, though it's a transition that's supposedly going to take two years. You're safe buying an Intel Mac for now. In fact, Apple says it has more Intel Macs in the pipeline and, rumor has it, a new 16-inch MacBook Pro with an Intel processor may launch on November 10.
What this means for Black Friday deals as well as Cyber Monday 2020 is that we may see big discounts for slightly older Macs and other Apple hardware.
Expect big MacBook discounts on Black Friday
Every time Apple announces new Mac, retailers immediately discount the old models to clear out their inventory, while Apple stops selling the those versions completely.
We've seen it before: you can save as much as $300 in the US by simply choosing a last-gen MacBook Pro, while select current-gen MacBook Airs, which could see a refresh in the first half of 2021, often see smaller, but equally tempting price drops.
Apple's November 10 event happens just 17 days before Black Friday, and if a new 16-inch MacBook Pro with a minor spec bump shows up, you're likely to see big savings on the Late 2019 version of the same MacBook Pro.
Early adopters will be selling their Macs
Apple is expected to launch an ARM-based 13-inch MacBook, or bring back the short-lived 12-inch MacBook size (no one knows which model or models will come first). With it, will be its first major processor transition since moving from PowerPC to Intel in 2006. The allure is going to be too much for early adopters to pass up.
That's going to set in motion a lot of well-kept MacBooks flooding eBay and other second-hand retail stores. This may be the best way to get the 13-inch MacBook Pro from early 2020 at a steep discount.
Other Apple devices could launch
Apple's invite uses 'One more thing' as the tease for this launch event, but there's a chance that the company will have more than one announcement for us.
If that's the case, the newfangled Apple Tags tracker may finally make their debut (they've been rumored for every Apple event in 2020), and an Apple TV 4K refresh may give us an updated set-top box (we haven't had one since September 2017).
Just like we theorized with laptops, the November 10 launch event could shift older Apple TV 4K boxes into discount mode, while the rival Tile tracker may have to offer even better deals to compete with Apple.
No matter what goes down on November 10, between that date and Green Monday, it's poised be the best time of year to shop for slightly older Apple products.
