“Apple Inc. made its case for consumers to buy its forthcoming smartwatch, positioning the device as a way to handle the brief interactions that fill our days, from meeting reminders to short messages to calling for a car.,” Daisuke Wakabayashi reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Apple said ‘thousands’ of apps had been developed for the watch, and showed off apps from WeChat, Major League Baseball, American Airlines, Instagram and Uber,” Wakabayashi reports. “Apple said the watch will be available in a wide range of designs and prices, from $349 to $17,000 for gold-cased versions of the most expensive model, Apple Watch Edition. Apple said the variety aims to reflect the personal nature of the device.”
“The watch will go on sale on April 24 in nine countries, although the company will start accepting preorders on April 10. Apple said the watch will have 18 hours of battery life and will be able to conduct phone calls… It allows shoppers to pay for goods by waving a mobile device in front of a card reader,” Wakabayashi reports. “The watch also straddles the line between jewelry and consumer electronics, creating different types of expectations from consumers about quality, obsolescence and the buying experience.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, as we wrote earlier: Brilliant pricing on Apple’s part, as expected. The pricing will move millions of high margin Apple Watch Sport and Apple Watch models.
Apple Watch Sport pricing:
• 38mm Silver Aluminum w/ Sport Band (White, Blue, Green, Pink, Black) – $349
• 42mm Silver Aluminum w/ Sport Band (White, Blue, Green, Pink, Black) – $399Apple Watch pricing:
• 38mm Stainless Steel w/ White Sport Band – $549
• 42mm Stainless Steel w/ White Sport Band – $599
• 38mm Stainless Steel w/ Black Sport Band – $549
• 42mm Stainless Steel w/ Black Sport Band – $599
• 38mm Stainless Steel w/ Black Classic Buckle – $649
• 42mm Stainless Steel w/ Black Classic Buckle – $699
• 38mm Stainless Steel w/ Milanese Loop – $649
• 42mm Stainless Steel w/ Milanese Loop – $699
• 42mm Stainless Steel w/ Leather Loop (Black, Bright Blue, Stone, Brown) – $699
• 38mm Stainless Steel w/ Modern Buckle (Black, Midnight Blue, Soft Pink, Brown) – $749
• 38mm Stainless Steel w/ Link Bracelet – $949
• 42mm Stainless Steel w/ Link Bracelet – $949
• 38mm Stainless Steel w/ Link Bracelet – $949
• 42mm Stainless Steel w/ Link Bracelet – $949
• 38mm Space Black w/ Space Black Stainless Steel Link Bracelet – $1049
• 42mm Space Black w/ Space Black Stainless Steel Link Bracelet – $1099Apple Watch Edition pricing:
• 38mm 18-Karat Rose Gold w/ White Sport Band – $10,000
• 42mm 18-Karat Rose Gold w/ White Sport Band – $12,000
• 38mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold w/ Black Sport Band – $10,000
• 42mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold w/ Black Sport Band – $12,000
• 42mm 18-Karat Yellow Gold w/ Midnight Blue Classic Buckle – $15,000
• 38mm 18-Karat Rose Gold w/ Rose Gray Modern Buckle – $17,000
The Apple watch may turn out to be fantastic, but the insane amount of choices does seem to be the antithesis of what Jobs did (simplifying the product line).
TIME will tell. Pun intended. 😀
It is only time will tell.
Seriously, what choices are there?
A watch, a pretty watch, a very pretty watch or an extremely pretty watch.
Each watch will do what every other watch will do. The Apps will work on all the watches.
The product line is fairly simple.
The line is simple. The insane amount of choices makes me feel like I’m on a Dell site.
“Do you want this size watch with this band? How about that size watch with this band? No? How about this size watch with this band? ….. Or maybe this size watch, mad e out of this material… with this band?”
Too rich for me! I complained about the price of my $80 watch! Of course the one I wanted is $1099! I won’t be buying one at those prices.
Never say never
Groundbreaking or Bank breaking?
I love apple but this is a mistake. Lets all queue for the base model – i think not.
We’ll see how soon Apple will abandon model 1.0.
Hopefully the inside will be upgradable.
Nah. It’s just not that hard to reach into my pocket and grab my iPhone.
I’ll go for the aluminum sport model to give it a whirl. If for nothing else than to use Apple Pay with my iPhone 5S
The Rich . . . having worked summer jobs at 5 star resorts, and having college classmates who are members of the Top 1 Percent, I understand how rich people think . . . and they don’t think like you and me. But if you are in sales, as Angela Ahrendts is, you understand that you can sell overpriced items to the rich, and they will pay for it—why? because they want to have “the most expensive one” . . . I appreciate the business savy Angela Ahrendts has brought to Apple, tapping into the high end marketplace, but still having affordable products for you and me.
Time for all the real long AAPL holders to give thanks and reciprocate to the goose that lays the golden egg buying the gold…
Surely all the real long time AAPL holders that want an watch, can easily afford to give thanks and reciprocate to the goose that lays the golden egg, by buying the gold…
An hourglass and sundial are really all I need. And maybe an egg timer.
I own a bunch of Apple products…iphone (6+), iPad air 2, iMac etc. etc. When the iPhone or iPad was introduced…I was sold. Immediately. Not getting the same feeling about the Watch after today’s rather flat and boring presentation. For a product that has been touted considerably in advance, there was not much enthusiasm conveyed for this next great thing. The next 2 months will be telling about where/how wearables fit into this rapidly evolving tech world.
The presentation was moving ata good brisk pace till the watch part.
Seemed like Apple wanted to let out a lot of information about it while deliberately almost withholding it’s muster… Maybe the Apps will speak for themselves, Tim Cook allided to that.
iPad’s initial presentation by Jobs was also, if you remember, at in completely different stride and also somewhat amiss of the magic that became evident as soon as you toched the iPad…
Man that new butterfly Macbook keyboard sure looked good, didn’t it?
That last paragraph of yours is key. We all need to remember that the magic comes through the encounter, the touch and feel, the experience. The magic has never come through crimped and sniveling reportage.
That Gledalough, is for certain
I will not be buying an Watch for one and only one reason. I don’t care what the time is at any given time of the day or night.
I will buy an Watch if it can prolong my healthy life on earth.
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