Best Buy and Target are now offering $100 discounts on the Apple Watch, spurring speculation that a new version of the wearable technology is on the way.
Best Buy has reduced its prices by $100. So the most inexpensive model, Apple Watch Sport, now starts at $249.
Instead of offering a straight discount, Target is instead offering free $100 Target gift cards with the purchase of an Apple Watch.
Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, tells Fortune that Apple is strict on pricing, so the discounts have a couple of possible implications:
“It suggests that either Best Buy’s taking all of the discount and is willing to forgo future supply of Apple watches, or that Apple is participating in the discount, and the new model is coming.”
Trip Chowdhry, an Apple analyst and managing director at Global Equities Research, disagreed that the discounts indicate a new generation of Apple Watch is on the way, however. He tells Fortune that there is little more to Best Buy’s discount than the retailer trying “to get more customers in-store.”
A Best Buy spokesperson tells Fortune that the discount is “good through Christmas.”
This week, 9to5Mac reports that Apple is planning to unveil the second-generation Apple Watch in March and ship it out in April. The third-party Apple news website attributes this information to unidentified “sources with knowledge of the plans.”
The current generation of Apple Watch first became available via pre-order in April, when initial sales of the wearable crushed those of the iPhone or iPod.
If you’re considering spending a couple hundred dollars on a watch, first check out “5 Reasons Not to Buy an Apple Watch.”
Would you purchase an Apple Watch now that prices have dropped? Let us know below or on our Facebook page.
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