The best Apple iPad and Mac deals for Cyber Monday 2014
It was hard enough to find a good deal on an Apple product on Black Friday without ruining your Thanksigiving dinner or paying full price and getting a gift card as your "deal." Cyber Monday has been traditionally even worse for iPad or Mac sales, and this year is no exception. It's not a total whitewash as far as sales, but the number of products you'll find discounts on are fewer, and the price cuts not as eye-popping.
Your best bet for Cyber Monday iPad deals is on the iPad mini, which will be cheaper than normal at Best Bay and Walmart. Walmart is offering the original 16GB mini for $219, or $30 off the regular price, but Best Buy does it better by selling it for $199.99. Walmart beats its competitor elsewhere, however, as its deal on a 16GB iPad mini 2 that's AT & T 4G ready is the same price ($329.99) as Best Buy has for a first-generation iPad mini with cellular capabilities, though Best Buy is slicing $50 off the price of any original iPad mini with 4G. Your other option for small savings is MacMall, which is taking $20 off the base iPad Air 2 (now $478.99), $10 off the base first-generation iPad Air ($389), iPad mini 2 ($289) and 3 ($389), and just $5 off the original iPad mini ($244).
If you missed out on Best Buy's Black Friday doorbuster of a MacBook Air for $779, the retailer is giving you another chance at savings, though not as steep. It's offering the base 11.6-inch laptop for $854.99 on Cyber Monday, or $45 off the regular price. You can instead grab an Air with 256GB of solid-state storage for either $1,044.99 ($55 less than normal) for the 11.6-inch version or $1,139.99 ($60 off) for the 13.3-inch model. MacMall can beat some of those deals, selling the base 11.6-inch Air for $829.99, the base 13.3-inch notebook for $929 ($70 off), and the 256GB editions that Best Buy has on sale for $1,029.99 and $1,129.99, respectively.
Those looking for a MacBook Pro with a Cyber Monday discount appears to be limited to MacMall. Luckily, the Apple retailer has a couple of more-than-token-savings deals, such as $99 off the base non-Retina MacBook Pro (dropping the price to $999.99) and at least $69 off all current generation MacBook Pro with Retina display systems, including a $119 price trim on the base 15-inch notebook (now $1,879.99). It also has a significant price cut on a previous generation MacBook Pro with Retina display -- down to $1,029.99 for the 13.3-inch laptop -- if you don't mind slightly older technology.
As with the MacBooks, it appears that Best Buy and MacMall are your best bet for iMac Cyber Monday deals. Best Buy has sale prices on a trio of iMac configurations: $120 off the 21.5-inch model with 2.9GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce GT 750M graphics ($1,379.99), and a $150 discount on either the base 27-inch iMac ($1,649.99) or a 27-inch edition with 3.4GHz quad-core Core i5 CPU and GeForce GTX 775M graphics card ($1,849.99). MacMall has savings on a wider range of iMacs, though not the base model and none that match Best Buy's offers. It does take $69 off the second-cheapest (normally $1,299) 21.5-inch configuration (which adds a beefier processor and double the hard drive size), and it also offers either $50 or $100 the new iMac with Retina 5k display.
Finally, it looks like MacMall is the primary retailer knocking money off the price of the Mac mini and the Mac Pro, though in the case of the mini, it's a mere $19 off most configurations. However, B&H Photo is discounting the $699 configuration (2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive) by $41. You'll save at least $99 off any Mac Pro configuration, and receive savings of $159 off the price of the base model, which still totals a hefty $2,839.99. Again, B&H Photo swoops in with one impressive Mac Pro deal, discouting the $3,999 configuration by $500 (or about $240 less than the MacMall sale price). It's possible that some unannounced deals can pop up anytime on Cyber Monday, so we'll update this post if we become aware of any.