Holiday Deals on PC Software: Black Friday - Before and After

November is a fabulous month to get big price breaks on Windows and Mac software, whether you're just shopping for yourself or for friends and family members on your holiday gift list. Black Friday deals might be more plentiful for PCs and other hardware gadgets, but great bargains on software from Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, and other major vendors will certainly be there over the post-Thanksgiving weekend. Other special price cuts are already in place for those who want to start holiday shopping early; on some software products, you can save up to 50 percent or more.

During a holiday season when many people's budgets are pinched, software can make for a relatively inexpensive gift that will still be liked. At pricing as little as $9.95, certain items can even serve as useful stocking stuffers (though you'll probably have to place any software stocking stuffers on the mantle since they may be too big to fit into holiday stockings).

Some of the bargains you'll come across will be found in stores like Best Buy, OfficeMax, and BJ's Wholesale Club. Other software deals will be happening online only.

Black Friday Deals in Stores

You might find it well worthwhile to stand in line at the mall for software on Black Friday, especially if you're planning to hit the stores for a new PC that could use some software applications -- or for an Apple iPad, digital camera, HDTV, or other holiday hardware gift. Alternatively though, if you want to be an early bird and avoid the crowds, you can start ordering software products from Web sites at low pricing right now.

Starting first with the Black Friday deals in stores, BJ's chain will sell Symantec's Norton Internet Security (NIS) 2012 with a bonus offering of Registry Mechanic at just $19.99 -- in contrast to the unusual $49.99 -- with a one-year, three-user license.

Heading over to Best Buy on Black Friday weekend? While there, you'll be able to pick up a copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student 2010 with a three-user license for just $99.99.

Meanwhile, OfficeMax will match that price on the PC edition of MS Office Home and Office, while stepping beyond the Windows environment to add discounts on the MacOS version. Over Black Friday, OfficeMax will sell Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 at $79.99 for one user and $119.95 for three users.

By the way, OfficeMax looks likely to be offering one of the most extensive arrays anywhere of Black Friday software bargains. Interested in updating your existing PC with newer applications? Well, you'll be able to fill your shopping cart at OfficeMax with items like Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security for the miniscule amount of $9.99; Norton 360 Version Standard Edition for $19.99; and the Adobe Photoshop and Premier Elements 10 photo and video editing package for only $89.99.

Early Bird Software Discounts Online

Moving over to online deals, Amazon.com is offering considerable discounts on boxed software across a wide range of categories as part of its current "Countdown to Black Friday" sale. On Amazon, you can get a $75 discount on Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11, a speech recognition product ordinarily priced at $199.99, or a $51 discount on Corel's WordPerfect X5 Home and Student, usually priced at $99.99

If you browse through other listings in the sale, you'll encounter a 30 percent price break on Quicken Home and Business 2012, to name just one discount.

Some of the holiday deals on software stay in effect even through New Year's Day. Browse on over to the NovaStor site, and you can get a 20 percent price break on backup software. This particular price cut is good through January 1, 2012.

Meanwhile, other holiday deals are available as software downloads -- although you'll need to be creative in figuring out how to slip a download into a holiday stocking, or how you'll wrap it as a Christmas present to put under the tree.

ZoneAlarm, for example, has ads on its Web site for a number of fantastic deals on downloadable security software, which will stay in effect from now through November 30. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite is now available for a mere $29.95, less than half of what you'd typically pay.

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