“Two recent developments suggest that Apple will use and extend its brand power as the primary engine of adoption for its forthcoming iWatch,” Anthony Wing Kosner writes for Forbes.
“The first is the launch of the first smartwatches with the new Android Wear OS highlighted at Google I/O. Although many early reviewers have complained of the constant buzzing of their wrists while wearing the Samsung Neo and the LG G Watches given away at the event, it is clear that (once the kinks are worked out) Google Now on your wrist is a winning (and Apple-beating) proposition,” Kosner writes. “The second is the hiring by Apple of Patrick Pruniaux, former sales director of Swiss luxury watchmaker TAG Heuer to join Angela Ahrendts (ex-Burberry) and Paul Deneve (ex-Yves Saint Laurent) in a fashion triumvirate in Cupertino. If the iWatch were to follow Apple’s existing product pattern and launch with one or two model and be sold through Apple’s current retail channels, why would it need these heavy hitters?”
“The answer, I think, is that Apple has realized that their traditional pattern will not work at the scale it requires with the iWatch,” Kosner writes. “How do you convince the mass of consumers to consider an iWatch to be a necessary accessory for 21st century life? Make it a fashion-forward, celebrity-endorsed object of desire. Make it aspirational (to use the technical marketing term.) And then, once its value and exclusivity is established, transform it into an ‘attainable luxury,’ much like the iPhone has become. ”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
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