Black Friday and Cyber Monday happen on the weekend of 24th to 27 November 2017.
Looking to the future
Looking towards Black Friday and beyond, some of the key trends identified by CCS Insights at this year’s IFA consumer electronics exhibition in Berlin were as follows…
- ‘Android-wear’ devices will create a big opportunity for wearable devices this Christmas. Manufacturers have learnt from initial mistakes and big bets are on fitness.
- AR will start to become more widely used, primarily driven by Apple. While the focus will be on fun applications initially, use within the enterprise will become more widespread as focused vertical applications take hold. For example, Ikea have introduced an app that enables consumers to visualise furniture within the home or office on their smartphone. Other manufacturers, such as Asus, are also embedding AR technology into their new devices.
- Arrival of more bezel-less smartphone designs – initially from Sharp and Xiaomi with others to follow.
- Audio quality will become a point of focus amongst smartphone manufacturers, with several partnerships due to be announced here.
- Rugged devices are growing in popularity, especially within the enterprise space as high end mobile phones become more brittle, using glass at the front and rear.
- Into 2018 we should start to see additional 360° content being produced by the likes of SKY, opening up a whole new field of potential for content creation, entertainment and consumption.
- Facebook announced Oculus Go to be released in Q1 2018 at £199 as a standalone VR headset. This should bridge the gap between mobile VR and Rift and really drive the adoption of VR to the mass market.
Last year, over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend, UK consumers spent close to £5.8 billion over the four days, almost half of it – £2.8 billion – online.
There are plenty of special offers available this year and as well as smart TVs and home devices, PC gaming and VR systems, drones and standard notebooks, tablets (2-in-1s especially) and Chromebooks are expected to be big sellers.
Major vendors have already set-up their offers and retailers and online sellers will be hoping for a bumper weekend to get the busiest few weeks of the year off to a good start.
