Every year before Black Friday, Apple’s online store is deactivated for a few hours regionally (country by country), and although it was rumored that this event indicates the introduction of a new product, this year, contrary to some speculations, we are not going to see such an event.
The deactivation of Apple’s website is done to prepare and introduce the company’s annual gift card offer to buyers of selected products. At the time of writing, Apple Stores in Australia and New Zealand are back online and the gift card offer has been activated in those regions.
According to MacRumors, Apple is offering a free gift card from November 29th to December 2nd with the purchase of select products in some countries. The value of this gift card in the US will be between 25 and 200 dollars.
Black Friday is one of the few times of the year that Apple directly offers discounts on its products. However, usually better and bigger discounts can be found through third-party stores like Amazon.