“The ongoing debate over Apple Watch pricing is causing many to miss the big picture: Apple wants the Apple Watch to be for everyone,” Neil Cybart writes for Above Avalon. “By selling a device for the wrist, Apple is trying to appeal to a wide range of consumers, from high school students to senior executives. In such a scenario, price is only one piece of the puzzle as Apple positions Apple Watch as both a mass-market good and luxury item.”
” Apple priced the entry-level Apple Watch Sport collection to be a mass-market good, attainable for mostly anyone willing to spend money on an iPhone accessory for the wrist. Prices will likely rise to thousands of dollars for the Edition collection to appeal to the consumer who wants a well-crafted device serving as a luxury status symbol,” Cybart writes. “It really doesn’t matter what price the high-end models cost as Apple’s strategy will be the same: segmenting the market between mass-market and luxury.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Gruber: Apple Watch Edition will cost $10,000-$20,000 – February 20, 2015
Apple Watch Edition will cost at least $5,000, probably much more – February 19, 2015
Will you pay $4000 or more for the 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition? – November 5, 2014
Why the Apple Watch can afford to cost thousands of dollars – December 12, 2014
I hope to pay $499 for the lighter, large face, Space Gray anodized aluminum with standard black band Sport model.
That model is the one they stated the price of $349 for, not sure why you would want to pay $499. Sure you don’t meant the stainless steel version?
No it’s not. The $349 model will be the smaller faced plain aluminum. I figure the larger face will cost $100 more and the Space Gray anodized aluminum will cost an extra $50.
That is your opinion. I say it is. Guess we will know in another month. Apple does not charge any more for silver vs space gray on the iPhones or iPods. Very highly doubtful they will start here. Its possible there may be a price difference in the sizes, they did not say.
Personally I hope to pay $499 for the stainless steel version (basic band). That sounds like typical apple price differentials.
There are a lot of options that Apple could offer, but haven’t, in the Apple Watch lineup, without compromising quality or user experience. However I don’t think this first run, aimed at your kids or just anyone. There is a lot of room for growth.
Also interesting will be Apple’s update policy / cost for any updated electronics.
$350 still seems awfully high for a watch, and a watch that is basically an accessory to the iPhone. I mean, possibly once I can see it in person and see how it works, I’ll change my mind, but still, people will be paying more for the watch than many people pay out of pocket for the phone itself. And are there any Apple Watch standalone apps, or is it all just to add functionality to iPhone apps? If it’s the latter, then it’s definitely not worth $350.
High price for a watch? The New York Times carries dozens of ads every day for watches costing from $10,000 to $1 million. And they are selling!
But are they selling to the average customer? That’s the whole question – is this going to be a luxury item, or a mass market consumer item? My impression was that Apple was shooting to be a higher quality brand in the mass market consumer market, not a luxury brand.
I can go into town and look in the window of a large high street chain of jewellers who sell watches from most well-known consumer brands: Casio, Seiko, Citizen, Bulova, Fossil…
And a significant number are priced above £250-350.
My Seiko automatic divers watch cost me £350, and all it does is tell me the time of day. That’s all I need, I have no need of a smart-watch linked to my phone during the day, I’m too busy to pay attention to it, and my phone is locked away for security reasons, it’s use within my main work area is forbidden, as is any device that can access the Internet by any means.
I prefer a watch that runs just by my wearing it, I can be anywhere in the world, miles from any electricity, and it will tell me the time, accurately, and I can see it in the dark, also without a battery.
It’s reserve is 55 hours, unlikely I’d leave it off for that length of time.
Accuracy? It was set correctly on October 25 last year, it’s currently exactly one minute fast; quite good enough in the real world.
This is not your dads watche. It has special sensors that alone are worth 150 bucks. It has amazing electronics, NOT just a quartz crystal with a counter. That is a complete computer in a module. What’s that worth? It has amazing materials, such as sapphire glass and stainless steel or hardened aluminium. On top of that it runs amazing software. IOS no less!!
And theres more!!!! The darn thing gets better as different apps come out.
It is my Tesla control, my house control, my health monitor, my iPhone control, and lots more.
It ain’t your dads watch!!!!
I don’t doubt that the Apple watch is amazing compared to other watches. But when we’re talking about something that requires an iPhone to operate and yet costs more than the iPhone, it leads one to wonder if it’s actually going to become as widespread as Apple expects it to.
Maybe it will. Maybe it will be as amazing as everyone says it is. Maybe people will develop amazing apps for it that will justify the price of it. Or maybe the early adopters will be widespread enough and market research will show that there are enough people who would by it at a lower price point that Apple will eventually decide that there’s enough demand for a lower priced Apple watch to justify offering one.
We’ll see.
It’s not a watch, any more than the iPhone is a cell phone. Compare them to pre-existing watches and cell phones has little validity.
Okay, let’s not compare it to other watches. Let’s take it as an isolated device that requires an iPhone to run. Literally. You cannot use it if you don’t have an iPhone (or I suppose you could. As just another watch.) As a device inextricably tied to the iPhone, it’s still more expensive than the iPhone, so the question is, who’s willing to pay that much more out of pocket to use it?
Again, I may be wrong, it may succeed after all and go viral, but if it doesn’t succeed, it will be that price point compared to the iPhone’s price point that kills it. Mark my words.
Seriously? The cheapest Apple Watch will be $349. The cheapest iPhone is the 5C, which is $450. If you are talking contract prices, I sure someone would be willing to finance the watch for you just like a carrier. Apple Watch $0, just rolled into your cell phone plan. TBD, but I expect the stainless Apple watch to come in at under the price of an iPhone 6 as well.
If a carrier were willing to throw in the Apple Watch into the contract, then yeah, absolutely, but what business reason would they have to do so? The phone is pretty much part and parcel of the phone contract. The watch? Not so much.
Although if you can convince me that I’m wrong, and that a wireless provider has a business case for wanting you to have the watch along with the phone and will subsidize the watch the same way they subsidize the phone, I’m willing to listen. But otherwise, the out of pocket costs for the watch still exceed the out of pocket costs for the phone.
This is exactly right and with all of that said, $350 is a gigantic bargain, plus in certain situations, the watch will be all you need and you won’t have to carry a phone in your pocket, with that bulging out.
But the watch is connected to the phone via bluetooth. So you will have to carry the phone in your pocket.
And no one answered my question about a business case for carriers subsidizing the phone with the watch. Am I right about that, or is there a business case for it after all?
Pricing of the edition does matter… It will have a big affect on ASP and the overall watch margins .
I read as “Dont focus on Apple Watch” then I got bored. Get a new iphone 64bit with 128Gb with a simple 4″ screen next year. The I will be happy.
So…how many watches does a person buy in a lifetime? Two, maybe? I sure hope Apple turns out a product that doesn’t need to be upgraded for twenty or more years. Think that will happen?