by a fan of our site:

T’was the night before Black Friday,
With her turkey dinner all done.
She sips her decaf and grins,
For the real fun hasn’t yet begun.

As with years past, excitement built when Apple’s site announced their participation in Black Friday. For several days, they promoted it by bringing people to a splash page that told them to come see their Black Friday deals either online, or in-store, but not until Black Friday.

No Black Friday site had any Apple ad scans or information, but some, us, went ahead and predicted what Apple would do for their sale. Like the weather, the best information we had was what happened yesterday, or in this case: last Black Friday. In 2009, Apple offered 10% off some items, and free shipping.

There’s no question big retail chains like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target get most of the Black Friday attention. We thought we’d give some attention to some of the smaller retailers out there that may not have the marketing budgets or name recognition some of the big guys have. Below are some of the deals we found from smaller retailers.

Approved just in time for Black Friday, the ultimate Black Friday iPhone App is now available now!

Just in time for Black Friday, BlackFriday.com has just launched the BlackFriday.com iPhone app on iTunes. The BlackFriday.com app is free and provides everything you need for America’s biggest shopping event on the go!

It’s not often we see an Internet Service Provider joining in the Black Friday fun, but CLEAR (aka Clearwire) has an interesting offer on their Clear Spot 4G device. They are offering an 80% discount on the price of the device, bringing it down from $99 to a mere $20.

If you haven’t already signed up for our Black Friday sweepstakes, which have been running all month long, now is the time. Today we are giving away our biggest prize yet (both in terms of money and size). Today we’re giving away a 46″ 3D 1080p HDTV  From Samsung:
Good luck! Just promise you won’t get mad at us if you win and everyone wants to watch TV at your house.

Target has certainly been creative with their marketing approach to Black Friday in 2010–more so then we’ve seen in years past. And like much of modern-day marketing, they aren’t relying on Television alone–the Web has become a big part of their marketing.

Besides the series of funny videos hosted on YouTube we show below, Target decided to sponsor one of Twitter’s hottest hashtags #blackfriday (yes, played our part in helping it become popular earlier then any year in the past).

Follow these Black Friday Eve tips to get the most out of the biggest shopping day of the year:

1. Be a proud couch potato – Don’t feel ashamed when you plop yourself in front of the TV for most of turkey day. You’re doing research. Keep a notepad near you and jot down the product and store that catches your eye. You are starting to compile your battle plan. Thanksgiving Day television is not just for football fans....

Black Friday doorbuster deals are the primary motivator for participating in Black Friday shopping. Though many doorbusters are amazing deals are sold at a loss for the retailer, there are some things you should look out for when going after a doorbuster deal.

Tired of being a couch potato? Now is the time get your groove on with motion based gaming. If you couldn’t force yourself to be an early adopter of Wii’s fun but limited gameplay, prepare yourself for the wave of launch titles coming for both PS3 Move and the XBOX 360 Kinect.

With more than a week to go to Black Friday, two Best Buy Black Friday shopping families started camping out to be the first in line. Needless to say, this got the attention of the press, which got the attention of Best Buy’s marketing team. They decided to reward these early shoppers with iPads.

Full moons are known to cause a bit of craziness. Tomorrow’s full moon will be no different as retailers start firing the first shots in the US shopping war better known as Black Friday. The fact that this full moon falls on a Friday is very fitting. Tomorrow marks exactly 5 weeks until Black Friday 2010.

Both Target and Kohl’s have released press details of their Black Friday sales plans. Starting on Sunday, November 21, Target will be launching a 4-day sale with over 170 items. Good news for Black Friday shoppers: the discounts will be mostly on top electronics, movies and toys. Coupons will be coming out in the Sunday circular for even more savings.

Everybody’s heard about the phenomenal holiday deals that are available on Black Friday. If you haven’t personally benefitted from the slashed prices and doorcrasher deals, you can bet some of your friends have. The amazing thing about Black Friday holiday deals is, the stores benefit too. Everybody wins.

A number of reports state that U.S. retailers enjoyed an increase in holiday sales in ’09, but that many of the sales were at lower profit margins. Considering the complex chore of digging through company balance sheets and retail statistics to find the truth, perhaps a better judge as to whether 2009 holiday sales were a success is Wall Street.

Below is a chart that shows the S&P Retail Index (^RLX). I’ve highlighted the various stages of the holiday period from Black Friday pre-sales & hype to after Christmas sales.

It happened soon this year then last, but most major retailers have leaked their Black Friday ads by now. This is great for Black Friday shoppers because it means they can plan ahead, knowing who has the best deals for the items they want.

There’s more to Black Friday than deals on electronics and toys! Some of the best bargains to be found on Black Friday are on designer shoes. Get ready for a holiday party, stock up on fabulous shoes for work or play, or treat yourself to a new pair of stylish heels ‘just because!’

Thanksgiving – it’s a wonderful time to be grateful for all we have, all the prosperity and abundance that has come our way in the past year. In the days after Thanksgiving, the focus changes a little bit. Thanksgiving sales are when we get to buy more things to be grateful for, often at prices that make our abundance go far.

Cyber Monday is the first Monday after ‘Black Friday’. Historically ‘Black Friday’, the Friday after Thanksgiving, is one of the top-3 shopping days of the year. This is because retail stores offers outstanding doorbuster deals on this day.  Fortunately for shoppers who don’t find what they want on Black Friday, retailers have turned it into a weekend long event finishing off with hot online sales on the following Monday, which has become known as Cyber Monday.

Black Friday 2010 assessments are in. Quantitatively, the data shows Black Friday hit new levels of popularity in 2010. Qualitatively, we noticed both retailers and the press put much greater emphasis on Black Friday, casting a larger shadow non-Black Friday holiday sales then we’d seen before.

Reports from a variety of sources confirm that 2010 was a record year for Black Friday shopping activity. The data below is understated since analysts failed to recognize that Black Friday’s activity takes place outside Friday (this year stores like Toys R Us opened up their Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving day plus many retailers make the Black Friday sale a 3-day sale that extends into Sunday).

E-Readers are hot this Black Friday but how to choose from amongst the plethora of options out there? Should I go for a dedicated reader like a Kindle or a Nook OR should I go for a multi-tasking device that includes a reader like an IPAD. Your decision will depend upon your needs, but our E-Reader roundup should make it easier for you to compare and contrast the various devices that are out – and help you to find the best price!

Here’s a press release we sent out today. It’s already gotten coverage on TheNextWeb, PadGadget, Black Web 2.0, and 1up among others. We’d love to see more bloggers chime in on the data and share their own predictions. Here’s the full data for those interested:Black Friday Predictions

Apple’s iPad and Kinect for Xbox 360 Expected to be the Most Highly Sought After Items on Black Friday

Last night Saturday Night Live poked fun at Black Friday with their skit featuring Anne Hathaway. The fictionalized store was called MegaMart with their 12-minute Black Friday Sale. As you can imagine, the deals were too good to be true and over-the-top.

Take a look for yourself:

If you see long lines at popular retailers, its not a Black Friday sale, it is because Kinect launches today. Anyone with Xbox live has likely seen the countdown timer for the Xbox Kinect launch for some time now. Now that the day is here, how’s the reception?

First off, it is hard to tell. As of the time of writing, a search in Google for Kinect doesn’t produce any news results. After heading over to Google news, I see more activity and expect much more today. At least Google didn’t offer the suggestion: Did you mean “connect.”

Americans are all familiar with Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the busiest day of the Christmas shopping season for many retailers. Incredible “doorbuster” sales are often held only on that day, and these sales encourage people to wake up in the wee hours of the morning and stand in line for hours just so they can be one of the first in the door when the store opens at 6 am or earlier.