Black Friday’s in the rearview mirror, giving us the opportunity to look back on just how much value was actually offered to shoppers.
A new report from Counterpoint Research (via Piunika Web) dives into the actual discounts offered by Google, Samsung, and Apple both during Black Friday and in the run-up to it, and its findings are actually pretty surprising. Google began offering deep discounts on the Pixel 10 series in early November, a move that allowed it to score higher than its closest mobile rivals on Counterpoint‘s Weekly Promotions Index. In fact, it wasn’t until the actual shopping holiday itself that Apple finally surpassed Pixel in terms of raw value.
Counterpoint‘s chart requires a little bit of explanation. This Promo Index Score ranges from 0 to 100 points, and tracks “the strength of the promotion from the consumer perspective,” specifically focusing on current flagships and foldables offered through US postpaid channels. Those are some caveats to what is otherwise an impressive performance from Google — and a not-so-impressive performance from Samsung.
According to these findings, Google’s early (and relatively deep) discounts on its entire Pixel 10 lineup helped boost the brand ahead of Samsung and Google, but it was Verizon’s “no trade-in required” deal on the Pixel 10 Pro Fold that truly pushed it ahead of the pack, offering $1,260 off the device on select plans. Counterpoint also calls out Verizon’s free Pixel 10 Pro XL promotion, as well as US Mobile’s $349 Pixel 10 deal that took place during the first week of November as standout opportunities.
Still, Google was bested by Apple when it came to scoring high on Black Friday. T-Mobile and Verizon both offered big deals on the regular iPhone 17 this year — T-Mobile in particular offered four free devices for anyone switching carriers — which was just enough to edge out those Pixel discounts for the top spot. Samsung, meanwhile, found itself lagging behind the postpaid competition; while Counterpoint acknowledges its promotions weren’t bad, a relatively strong set of discounts kept it out of the top spot, often requiring trade-ins or higher-tier plans not needed for Pixel or iPhone.
It was better news for Samsung in the prepaid space. Motorola and Samsung practically tied in terms of promotional value on Black Friday, thanks to discounts on G-series and A-series devices, respectively. Apple also snuck into this chart, thanks to Total Wireless sales on both the iPhone 16e and older flagships like the iPhone 14. Still, using the same formula as postpaid to calculate value, none of these brands outperformed those postpaid deals.
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