Apple is helping last-minute holiday shoppers give the gift of Apple products this year. The company is offering free overnight shipping Dec. 23, according to its recently updated website.
Usually, Apple’s online store offers free two-day shipping for in-stock items. Apple offered free next-day shipping on Dec. 23 last year as well.
For shoppers who wait until Christmas Eve, Apple also clarified that its in-store pickup program will let procrastinators order last-minute gifts online and pick them up the same day. The only caveat is the order needs to be placed two hours before the closing time of your local Apple Store.
Most Apple Stores in the United States close at 9 p.m., so the drop-dead time for most shoppers looking to order a last-minute iPhone or Apple Watch online would be 7 p.m. Christmas Eve.
How many people will find Apple products under the tree this year? Apple is clearly pushing its smartwatch as a holiday gift; at a starting price of $349, the Apple Watch is just affordable enough for many people to gift without spending the big bucks for an iPhone or MacBook.
According to IBM’s Watson Trend analytic engine, which tracks conversation around the Internet, Apple Watch was the most-talked about gift this holiday season, but has since been surpassed by Samsung (SSNLF) TVs.
A number of new products in Apple’s lineup could be popular gifts. Apple (AAPL) released a new Apple TV, a bigger iPad, and a battery case to extend the life of the iPhone 6 in the past 12 months.
Still, Apple’s best-selling product this Christmas will undoubtedly be the iPhone. In the most recent quarter, Apple sold 48 million iPhones, compared with just under 10 million iPads and 5.7 million Mac desktop computers. (Apple doesn’t reveal Apple Watch sales.)
The Christmas quarter is historically Apple’s biggest. Last year, Apple racked up a record-setting $18 billion in profit off sales of $74.6 billion during the holiday quarter.
It’s hard to beat numbers like those, but Coins2Day- polled analysts believe Apple’s revenue from this holiday quarter will be up 5.2% over last year. Perhaps it will be boosted by last-minute shoppers taking advantage of free overnight shipping.
How much will shoppers spend this holiday season? Watch this video for Coins2Day’s estimate:
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