Apple's official Black Friday sale is now live, but you shouldn't buy anything

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple has today launched its official Black Friday sale that will see customers bag gift cards of up to $250 with some purchases. As always, unfortunately, there aren't any actual discounts to be had on Apple's website or in-store. Rather, customers get some money back with an Apple store gift card that increases in size the more they buy.

Buying an M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro is the way to get that big boy $250 gift card, but buying something like a pair of AirPods will give you $25 to spend later. These aren't big savings, in fact, they aren't savings at all, which is why you should skip Apple's Black Friday sale in favor of the hefty discounts at Amazon, B&H Photo, and beyond.

You can see the details below, but if you want to make some actual savings then you're better off elsewhere. We've rounded up the very best Apple Black Friday deals here and will be keeping track of them all weekend, with many of the best deals already live. More specifically, you can find:

Apple is offering a $50 gift card to those who buy iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, and iPhone SE handsets while but there is no gift card to be had by those buying Apple's best iPhones — those picking up an iPhone 14-series device will have to make do with their new phone instead.

Those picking up an Apple Watch SE will be treated to a $50 gift card, while iPad Air, iPad, and iPad mini customers get the same gift card too.

Apple has also expanded the offer to some of its Beats earbuds, with Studio3 Wireless, Solo3 Wireless, Powerbeats Pro, Beats Fit Pro, Beats Studio Buds, and Beats Flex, all offered with a $50 gift card.

Apple also shared a new Christmas-themed AirPods Pro ad that shows the ability to share an audio source with multiple pairs of its wireless earbuds. For example, the above video shows two people dancing through the streets and turning their surroundings into snow — including one unfortunate chicken.

You can see all of Apple's offers on its Apple Shopping Event website. The freebies will run from Friday, November 25, and end on Monday, November 28.

Looking for a deal that saves you money instead of giving you a gift card? Check out our collection of the best Apple Black Friday deals and start saving.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.