Smartphone Deals Will Be Everywhere In Time For Black Friday

Mobile Phone Sales

Some super good mobile phone deals will kick off on Black Friday as people flood stores and websites the day after Thanksgiving.

The sales are just a continuation of a trend toward cheaper mobile phone prices. According to The NPD Group, the overall average price for phones in the U.S. fell to $85, which is down from $88 in the year-ago period. Smartphone prices dropped 3 percent in the same timeframe. Starting this weekend, AT&T will roll out a number of deals, including a 24-hour BlackBerry sale and a one-cent phone sale (but sorry, no iPhone deals). Verizon Wireless is discounting everything from a netbook to a MiFi, and will be offering two smartphones — the HTC Ozone and BlackBerry Flip — for $10. T-Mobile has announced that it will knock off $50 on three phone models, including two smartphones, and HTC is offering $100 back to anyone who sends them a qualifying smartphone with the purchase of one of their new devices.

When it comes where consumers will be shopping, the NPD Group said behaviors change a little bit at the end of the year. In the third quarter, 68 percent of new handsets were purchased at carrier stores, 8 percent were purchased at mass merchants and 9 percent at electronics stores. Around the holidays, however, consumers tend to purchase more handsets from mass merchants because they’ll be shopping for other items at the big-box retailers, wrote NPD Analyst Ross Rubin.

Those statistics don’t say whether the phones were purchased in person or online, but clearly the web is an area that retailers are gleefully jumping into. The NYTimes takes a look at the online practices of major retailers, like Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and RadioShack. While they all sell phones online, they are actually partnered with retailers, like Wirefly and LetsTalk.com. Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN) is another one that has become very aggressive. For instance, it is offering the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pixi from Sprint (NYSE: S) for $25, which is significantly less than the $100 that Sprint is charging.

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