Holiday Shopping Season, Gadgets | featured news

If you've been weighing buying a new Mac or iPad but are holding out for one of Apple's rare discounts, Black Friday is your chance.

We’ve rounded up the best Black Friday deals of 2011, from TVs to laptops and tablets, with our comprehensive guide to Black Friday. While skiers flock to Aspen in January, and fly fisherman can’t wait to plant their waders in icy Montana rivers come April, it’s November and December that holds special significance for that special breed known as bargain hunters. Between manufacturers eager to bolster their numbers with strong holiday sales and retailers competing for your hard-earned dollars, the deals don’t get much better. And Black Friday represents the first day of open season and offers the best deals of the year.

More consumers are discovering their mobile devices can help them compare prices, research gift ideas, redeem electronic coupons and watch for special deals. As shoppers gear up for another mad holiday scramble, smartphones and tablet computers are emerging as Santa's electronic helpers.

The Kindle Fire tablet may be the hottest selling gadget this holiday, pressuring Amazon.com Inc's profit margins but giving the world's largest Internet retailer potentially millions of new high-spending customers.

Amazon's Kindle Fire is a Catch-22 for retailers: The $199 tablet computer could both help Christmas traffic and hurt future sales.

Amazon’s souped-up color version of its Kindle e-reader hopes to undercut the iPad in price and steal away a couple of million in unit sales by Christmas.

Shoppers ignored Best Buy Co Inc's promotion of pricey 3D televisions and other high-end gadgets this holiday season as they chased bargains elsewhere, hammering the company's profits.

Apple's iPad tablet computer -- one of the hottest items of the holiday shopping season -- got a price cut on the company's website Friday.

“For the holidays, the tablets will be mostly Android-based, plus the iPad,” said Mike Vitelli, Best Buy’s President of North and South American business, in an interview.

Wal-Mart's much-awaited Black Friday deals will focus on a gamut of gadgets such as high-definition TVs, laptops and Blu-ray players, as well as holiday gift favorites such as toys and DVDs, according to a copy of the retailer's circular obtained by CNNMoney.com.