We’re coming into the Christmas season and that means tons of IT sales. The bigwigs like Microsoft, Apple, Samsung, Dell have all announced something that you can pick up this holiday season. The trend of gifting surely has changed, over the last couple of years people have migrated away from buying products like clothing and what not for close relatives and significant others and instead buy things like cell phones, tablets or even a brand new computer.

I’m not saying that the entire concept of gifting someone a sweater, watch or a savvy new dress is completely lost on us, but given how much value we give to our gadgets, it’s not surprising that most people look forward to getting a brand new gadget for Christmas. Heck, most of the people on my social media list have been talking about getting a new phone for Christmas for the last month.

Most e-commerce retailers usually work a little extra hard during the Christmas period. It’s the biggest opportunity for the year, and since the IT market in South East Asia has recently been exploding, it’s not surprising that we’re seeing the same trends with online stores in this region. Holidays have become more about spending time with family rather than running out and beating the lines to buy the latest gifts, because when you think about it, there isn’t a lot that you can’t buy online any more.

It makes sense to just stay home and shop online, doesn’t it? Online e-commerce retailers are launching some pretty heavy discount deals and Christmas goodies and sweepstakes. Malaysian online shopping giant Lazada is currently offering some unbeatable deals like offering the Samsung Galaxy SIII at 15% off, and the entire Nikon D3100 kit at 20% off! Those are some deals which you’ll find hard to find offline as well, no matter where you head out. If that wasn’t enough to rock your boat, you should know that the Sony Xperia Sola and the Haipad A13 tablet are both at 30% off.

A couple of weeks ago the Christmas war started early. Apple announced the long awaited iPhone 5 and Samsung announced the Note II. Microsoft threw out Windows 8 and the Microsoft Surface and Apple countered with the retina display on the new MacBook Pros. Toshiba, Dell and Acer announced a fresh new slew of ultrabooks and hybrid computers and it all seems set to be a fantastic face off as we close in on the end of the year. Initial reports do suggest that Android will be taking us by storm as Christmas draws closer, it seems virtually impossible for Apple to trump that. But that’s a completely different story for another time.

The holidays mean that you’re going to have relatives coming over; you’re going to be spending time with family and probably going to be making some memories. Technology has never been of better help when it comes to helping us store and share memories. Lazada’s Christmas deals on cameras have as much as 25% and 30% off on Canon and Nikon DSLRs. Christmas most definitely has come early for the photography bugs out there, you should probably grab your discounted camera while stocks last on the products, they’re probably going really fast.

Here’s what’s interesting though. Lazada MY has got an interesting concept for Christmas, they’ve got unique deals for each day of the month, you can access it on their Christmas deals page and take a look at what they’ve got planned out. It seems like every day there’s a surprise product that is at a specially discounted price, they’ve already had a sale for monitors, perfumes and Blackberries so far, the iPad is up for sale at a discount today. I’m guessing the products will get a whole lot more interesting as Christmas draws closer, it’s going to be interesting to see how this turns out.

What’s on your Christmas shopping list? What kind of product would you like to be gifted this year? Have you made any requests from anyone yet? Unfortunately I’ve already finished my quota of technology shopping for the year, so looks like I’m going to be on the giving rather than the receiving end this year!

Author Bio: Avtar Ram Singh is a technology enthusiast who covers articles on topics ranging from social media and internet technologies to consumer devices.