Best Buy advertised a $99 smart TV in a Monday email blast, but the least expensive smart TVs we could find at Best Buy's online store were shown at $109. That price point was for a white-labeled Insignia 24-inch HD Fire TV and a Westinghouse 32-inch HD Roku TV. A Toshiba 32-inch HD Fire TV was selling for $139. All three models were discounted by $40.
Bose is offering discounts to military personnel through its e-commerce site. Active-duty members are eligible, as are reservists, veterans, retirees, National Guard, surviving spouses and immediate family. Eligibility is confirmed by ID.me. Offers are good on products $199 and higher. Aviation products are excluded.
Prime Day-esque deals on Amazon devices this week are part of the e-commerce giant’s Ready for School event, a spokesperson emailed. “We regularly offer customers new deals, including deals on Amazon Devices,” she said. Current deals are “unrelated to Prime Day,” which will be in Q4, she said.
Customers who buy select Apple products will get extended trial offers for Apple services, the Best Buy e-commerce site showed Monday. Offers are available to new customers only. IPad customers can get “hundreds” of magazines and newspapers via Apple News+ for four months. The subscription automatically renews for $9.99 per month after trial until canceled. Similar Apple Music four-month free trials are being offered with a wide range of products including MacBook Air laptops, the Apple Pencil, Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone adapters, Apple Watch and AirPod Pro earbuds. Monthly Apple Music subscriptions are $5 for students, $10 for individuals and $15 for families. Bloomberg reported last week that Apple is readying services bundles for launch this fall (see 2008130029).
LG is giving away a pair of its $99 Tone Free true wireless earbuds with the purchase of eligible 2020 LG TVs through Aug. 30, it said Thursday. The Tone earbuds have Meridian's Headphone Spatial Processing technology. The earbud promotion is in addition to a TV/sound bar savings bundle.
Synchronoss Technologies got a five-year contract extension with top customer Verizon that includes a joint marketing agreement for Synchronoss “to step up our marketing efforts to sell Verizon Cloud to their wireless subscriber base,” said CEO Glenn Lurie on a Monday investor call. “We have not previously had, to this degree, a dedicated and coordinated direct marketing effort.” Synchronoss will focus near term on “cloud adoption in the setup flow when Verizon is onboarding a new customer or an existing customer upgrade to their device,” said Lurie, former CEO of AT&T’s mobility and consumer operations. “We believe this joint marketing effort will be a powerful catalyst to drive adoption of Verizon Cloud.” Other Synchronoss initiatives in the contract extension “augment Verizon's service offerings in other areas, which provide us with expanded access to Verizon customers and help us continue to grow cloud revenue,” he said. The stock closed 14.7% higher Monday at $3.51.
The Wireless Speaker and Audio Association is rolling out more campaigns in its transition from a technology and certification provider to a “consumer-facing" organization. It expects to reach 100,000 website visitors in Q3, it said Monday. WiSA's goal is to draw 250,000 customers to the website by Black Friday to help members drive holiday marketing programs and spur adoption of the WiSA standard globally, it said. The WiSA site links visitors to the branded sites and shows them where to buy WiSA members’ audio and video products, it said. This year, 44% of visitors have clicked “learn more” or “buy now” to be directed to a member’s landing page, it said.
Cleer Audio was named the United Soccer League's official personal audio partner for the USL Championship, League One and League Two, said the audio company Friday.
Samsung teased a $50 “gift” credit in a Thursday email to customers who preorder the "next Galaxy” through Wednesday when the company holds its virtual Unpacked product launch event. The credit is available to customers who buy the “latest Samsung Galaxy device” on an installment plan with a two-year contract, lease it or buy it at full retail price, it said. Credits are valid at Samsung.com or the Samsung app for use toward eligible wearables, tablets, PCs and accessories through Black Friday.
Amazon isn’t holding its annual Prime Day sales event this week, but its Woot deals site is throwing itself a birthday bash. Among deals featured Monday were “scratch & dent” iPhones starting at $99 for the iPhone X. The weeklong event promises “surprises popping up all week.” Prime members get free standard shipping, it said. Last year's Prime event began July 15. Amazon didn't comment on reports this year's Prime Day event has been moved to October.