It is no secret that electronic devices are big sellers when Christmas sales like Black Friday kick off. On these big sales days people line up, sometimes days in advance, in front of stores like Best Buy to get good deals on electronic devices.
Although not all Cougars line up for good deals on electronics, many do have electronic devices on their Christmas wishlists.
Best Buy employees of the Orem store expect Microsoft products and products running Windows to do very well this season.
The original Surface tablets were on sale for $200 on Black Friday, and they sold out at the Orem store. This is in line with what retail analytics company InfoScout found: the Surface RT was Best Buy’s top seller on Black Friday.
Best Buy Orem employees also report that sales for the Surface 2 line have been strong, which feature processors and displays that have been updated from that of their predecessors.
Matthew Critchley, a sophomore from Sedro-Woolley, Wash., has his eyes on a different Windows tablet: a Dell Venue 8 Pro. It is an 8-inch tablet that runs full Windows.
“It comes with Microsoft Office preinstalled, so I can use it at school,” Critchley said. “Being only 395 grams, it will be much easier to carry around than my 6.6-pound gaming laptop.”
Critchley also likes that tablets running Windows can multitask, or have separate apps running on the screen simultaneously.
InfoScout also found that Microsoft’s Xbox line also sold the most gaming consoles, with 61 percent of Black Friday sales.
Michael Bischoff, a senior studying exercise science, has his eyes on a new Windows computer, which the Orem Best Buy has also sold plenty of. He needs a new computer because his has stopped working.
“One of the cooling fans stopped working, and so the computer won’t boot up Windows because it thinks it will overheat,” Bischoff said.
Bischoff does not have any preferences as to what type of computer he gets, as long as it is not a Mac.
Apple products are also expected to sell well over the Christmas shopping season. Orem Best Buy employees noted that iPads and iPhones are both selling well, spurred by updated versions of both product categories. This also falls in line with what InfoScout found: iPads were top sellers at Walmart and Target on Black Friday.
However, Joanna Guo, 21, from Taipei, Taiwan, is playing it a little bit differently. She would like an iPhone 4 or 4s for Christmas to replace her current iPhone 4.
“I used this phone for three years, and I dropped it into the water twice and it is still working,” Guo said. “So that’s why, if I want to get a phone, I will still choose an iPhone.”
She wants an iPhone 4 or 4s, which have 3.5-inch screens, over the newer iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, which have 4-inch screens, because she prefers phones with smaller screens.
Whether it be a new phone, computer or gaming consul, electronics are making it to the top of Cougars’ Christmas wishlists.
