Microsoft wields turkey knife, slices Surface to $199 for Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving has come to be known as Black Friday, a day on which all manner of brands drop their pants prices in order to get US punters to open their wallets.

The practice is now spreading worldwide and there's some tasty offerings around the world.

The most notable discount is probably Microsoft's $US199 offer for a 32GB Surface slab. Redmond's done something odd, however: add the keyboard/cover and the price reverts to $399. For UK readers, the 32GB Surface can be yours for £279.00. The 64GB model looks the bargain at £299.00, a very low price to pay for 32GB of storage. And yes, those prices are well and truly over the odds compared to those in the new world. Complaints welcome in the comments.

The most “enterprise-y” sale we can find is at VMware, which has sliced 35 per cent from its Workstation product. Is Workstation so much better than Oracle's free Virtualbox? Again: you know where the comments are.

Dell's trying hard too, having knocked $200 off an XPS model that includes a current-generation Core i7 that would not disgrace a Sydadmin's desk, and has also run up a dedicated Black Friday business deals page . HP has some discounts on consumer kit .

Apple throws a Black Friday sale every year, but hasn't yet revealed (at the time of writing) the details of what it will offer in the USA or UK. Here in Australia, the fruity company isn't offering cash discounts but will instead hand out gift vouchers with some purchases. The vouchers are for up to $AUD150, greater than some discounts from previous years. Of course the thing with vouchers is punters often find they want something worth more than the voucher, so end up spending more. Either that or forget about them, leaving some cash in Apple's kitty.

Adobe's having a go, with discounts on a Creative Cloud bundle. Feel free to let your fellow readers know if you spot other good business IT kit on sale. ®