After Monday’s Apple Watch event, Apple won’t look the same

“The Apple Watch represents the biggest product bet Apple has placed since the iPhone in 2007,” Neil Cybart writes for Above Avalon.

“Apple will never be the same kind of company once Apple Watch pricing is revealed on Monday,” Cybart writes. “Management’s primary focus during Monday’s “Spring forward” Apple Watch event will be showing how a premium mass-market technology brand can embrace luxury without alienating a portion of its customer base.”

Cybart writes, “On one hand, Apple Watch is a device that seemingly no one asked for, but on the other hand, it is a device that holds enough potential to reshape the mobile landscape by altering the way consumers use iPhones.”

Read more in the full article – recommended – here.

MacDailyNews Take: Get ready!

He who’s not busy being born is busy dying. — Bob Dylan

As we wrote in January:

All phones are cumbersome to the same degree. They have to be pulled out, woken up, and poked at… Apple created… a world of iPhone/iPhone knockoff addicts. Apple will change the world again with Apple Watch, replacing iPhone zombies and iPhones on and under dining tables and everywhere else (you know, the stuff the older set complain about: “People nowadays, always looking at their gizmos, nobody can even have a conversation”) with quick glances of the wrist – like in the days of yore….

With iPhone, Apple changed the fabric of our everyday lives: All around the world today, you see people constantly pulling phones from pockets and staring at them. With Apple Watch, Apple will change behavior worldwide once again. A quick glance at your Watch and you’re off. No more smartphone zombies. Watch and see.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Dan King” and “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]

28 Comments

        1. Two differences, Fan.

          First, the Apple Watch will not be the next Cube, although there both devices represent pathfinders for different areas of computing technology.

          Second, even if the Apple Watch does not meet expectations (and those will range from pessimistic to utterly ridiculous), it will not bring down Tim Cook. Apple is able to weather some adversity. There is no company better positioned to weather adversity. Apple surfed thought the recent Great Recession while other companies cut back.

      1. I’m looking forward to Fan’s post about how he’s made all this money shorting Apple before the watch announcement, and how he’s going to use his fortune to purchase a new island.

        That or he’ll be leaping off a bridge…

      1. The term “Watch” is a misnomer and is being used because it is worn the same way a watch is worn. But it’s really an iPhone accessory to make sing your iPhone easier than ever to use. Note it has both a microphone and a speaker in it. Plus it has a haptic sensitive touch retina display as well as what appear to be a set of multiple (quad) wrist vibrators/tappers. How many other “watches” can you name that have those elements on them? The price is in fact a steal. Extremely reasonable and fair. Not high at all. If any thing the price is LOWER than we have a right to expect. 😜😱😍

        1. FutureMedia is spot on. The iPhone is a computer that has voice technology in it. We don’t look at it constantly because we’re waiting for telephone calls. The AppleWatch will be an extension of that computer that looks like a watch and can display the time…not a watch…

    1. I think the tech critics are going to have a field day pointing out how useless it is and they will likely predict it as a flop. I’d almost swear it couldn’t be much better than any other smartwatch on the market based on current poor battery tech. I honestly hope I’m missing the big picture.

      However, average iPhone users may have entirely different expectations. It’s really hard for me to make predictions about demand for this product. I doubt it will make or break Apple or Tim Cook whether it’s a success or failure. It’s just one Apple product out of many.

  1. I’ve asked about twenty technophiles their intention; nearly everyone said (in their own words), “I’ll buy the Sport, see if I can integrate into my life.”

    The consensus: this is new stuff, I want to understand it, I’ll go with the industry leader.

    1. Yeah, that’s how I see it, too. However, I’d need to try it or at least see a few reviews before I pass judgment. If I lived in the horse and buggy era and someone told me about horseless cars, I’d simply be at a loss trying to imagine it. That’s how I feel about AppleWatch and I think a lot of people might feel this way. Right now, I don’t much like hearing about the short battery life when using the sensors. The cost of the low-end Sport is very reasonable to me so that’s not the problem. I just wonder if it will be too much of a nuisance maintaining for what it can do.

      I really hated the early LED watches because I’d use it a lot and soon have to replace the battery. I thought they were cool, but I got sick of them early on. The LCD watches changed everything for me. They kept great time a good display and had long battery life. I keep thinking the AppleWatch is going to be like the LED watch to me but I’m going to give it a shot anyway.

  2. Apple won’t look too different. The writer posits that Apple will be going after a new customer base, while trying to not alienate the existing customer base. Who is this “new” Apple customer? Someone with a lot more money that didn’t buy Apple before because they weren’t gold-plated? That is a pretty empty set. Rich people could always buy as many Apple products as they wanted and not be embarrassed about their choices. Still going to be happening.

    What will look different is the faces of the fools who thought Apple was going to try to put enough lipstick on a tech-centric wrist computer to sell it for $20,000. They’ll be trying to look dignified hopping around with one foot firmly in their mouths.

    There will be versions of the Watch that will look excellent and appropriate in any surroundings they find themselves. But they won’t cost all that much and there will be no shame in using them. They won’t speak loudly of the wearers wealth, but speak volumes about their savvy.

  3. Since the beginning of 2014 and through the first quarter of 2015, Apple has sold approximately 250M iPhones. If Apple captures 20% of this user base, that’s 50M watches. Assume an average price of $349 (low), we are looking at $17.5B in revenue. I think they would consider that a huge success.

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