“Cindy Romani isn’t pumped about Apple Inc.’s smartwatch,” Allison Prang and Lindsey Rupp report for Bloomberg. “‘It looks really techy, so I guess if you’re into that, I think it’d be good,’ the 21-year-old college student said as she shopped Tuesday along New York’s Fifth Avenue. ‘I don’t really think it looks so pretty.'”
MacDailyNews Take: As we go along here, we’ll list how Bloomberg‘s headline, “Apple Watch skewed to geeky guys risks alienating female buyers,” is supported.
So far we have the opinion of a 21-year-old college student off the street.
“Women are chiming in a day after Apple introduced its much-anticipated wrist gadget, with models priced from $349 to $10,000 and customizable by color, watch face and bands. The device, which must be paired with a newer iPhone to work and has to be recharged nightly, may appeal to sports-minded female consumers, according to Allen Adamson, managing director of Landor Associates, a brand consulting firm in New York,” Prang and Rupp report. “‘It feels clearly skewed to the geeky men’s side of the population from a functionality point of view, and from a design point of view — it’s large and square,’ Adamson said. Among members of the opposite sex, its target market is ‘the intense, athletic women, the fitness fanatics,’ he said.”
MacDailyNews Take: In a bit of interesting info — to us, at least, as Bloomberg‘s piece (and we do mean “piece”) fails to mention this fact to their readership — Landor Associates’ client list includes LG Electronics, Microsoft, Samsung, and Rolex.
So, currently we have the opinions of a random 21-year-old college student off the street and the managing director of a consulting firm which represents several would-be Apple Watch competitors.
“Amy Turner, a 40-year-old teacher, is an Apple consumer and isn’t concerned about how a watch might compromise her style,” Prang and Rupp report. “‘I wouldn’t worry about it being fancy or whatever,’ Turner said while shopping in midtown Manhattan. She said she cares more about size. ‘My problem is I have a hard enough time seeing what’s on my big 6 Plus phone.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, another shopper. How many shoppers did they interview to get the two we’ve heard from so far? Bloomberg doesn’t say.
So far, supporting “Apple Watch skewed to geeky guys risks alienating female buyers” we have:
• the opinion of a 21-year-old college student off the street
• the opinion of the managing director of a consulting firm which represents several would-be Apple Watch competitors
• the opinion of a 40-year-old teacher off the street.
“‘Females wear watches because of fashion,’ Erinn Murphy, an analyst in Houston with Piper Jaffray Cos., said in a telephone interview,” Prang and Rupp report. “While she said it’s too early to tell about the Apple Watch’s allure for women, her gut feeling is ‘early-adopter, tech-oriented males’ will respond to the product first and then with time the market will understand the female adoption rate.”
MacDailyNews Take: Now we have the “gut feeling” of an analyst interviewed over the telephone who, for what it’s worth, also happens to cover Fossil, Inc., but not Apple Inc.
Prang and Rupp report, “‘Given that watches today are being worn for fashion and status, we do not believe everyone will abandon wearing their watches and purchase a wearable’ device, Murphy wrote [in a research note last week].”
MacDailyNews Take: You don’t say? And water is wet. How much does this sort of stellar “analysis” go for these days?
“Romani is among that population,” Prang and Rupp report. “She wears a traditional watch and said she isn’t interested in the athletic and other functions of the Apple device.”
Full article (via donotlink, so they don’t get search engine position improvement) here.
MacDailyNews Take: Final tally of how Bloomberg‘s headline, “Apple Watch skewed to geeky guys risks alienating female buyers,” is supported:
• the opinion of a 21-year-old college student off the street
• the opinion of the managing director of a consulting firm which represents several would-be Apple Watch competitors
• the opinion of a 40-year-old teacher off the street
• the gut feeling of an “analyst” who covers Fossil, Inc., but not Apple Inc.
• And, the opinion of the same 21-year-old college student off the street as beforeLest you think this is a one-off aberration, it appears to be part of a disinformation campaign (all links run through donotlink):
– Vox: The Apple Watch is an overpriced gadget and an underwhelming luxury product: “Apple may find women to be tougher customers than men.”
– Reuters: Apple’s watch hasn’t impressed the fashion world: “Fashion trend-spotter Roseanne Morrison of the Tobe Report said the watch’s need for a nightly charge and an accompanying iPhone were considerable drawbacks. ‘It is not attractive from a woman’s point of view. Right now, it is not sexy,’ she said, and lacks ‘a femme spin.'”
– The Telegraph: Newsflash: Women just don’t wear watches anymore. Sorry Apple: “Apple is launching its first wearable technology offering: the smart watch. But will it appeal to the few remaining women who actually wear timepieces? Claire Coleman – a self confessed Apple addict – isn’t so sure.”
Unfortunately, there are many more examples out there, too, which we will not highlight.
Always, ALWAYS, read the “news” with a critical eye. So much of today’s so-called “news” is nothing more than horseshit propaganda designed to concoct a headline that busy people will glance at, never reading the full article, but coming away with the propagandist’s desired message implanted.
They could just as easily have said “Apple’s focus on fashion and fitness risks alienating geeky males”.
The truth is they’ll both love it for the same reason:
Indispensable functionality.
Obvious functionality will be the key to the Watch’s success. Yet, it’s such a different form factor than the iPhone. I wonder how non-geeks will adapt???
http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/9/8173805/apple-watch-hands-on
No more so than other other tech. I don’t see the geek acquisition of Macs, iPhones, iPads or iPod Touches bothering females anywhere. They’re standing in line for their’s too.
Copy of my wife’s text to me as she watched the Watch segment of the keynote on her iPhone:
“I so totally want this”
She’s neither geeky nor a guy.
My wife said the same last night when I had a browser open trying to decide on which band me me. Son in college is buying one for himself and his girlfriend. So we are already in for four on pre-order day.
Watch will be a monumental failure.
Linda??
That is so odd to me theyʻd say something like that.
Watch is being featured in Vogue fashion magazine… Paris fashion shows… The spokesperson at the Yerba Buena event was a girl supermodel, Christie somebody.
Scooby Doo say, “RUHR?”
My first thought as well. I don’t know how more any company could target the product for women. The majority of imaging for Apple Watch features women. Do these people think that a woman may not want to be able to view camera’s in her home or open a door for a child while she is at work? Plus, any opinions from women on the street before the product is shipping and in use by the friends, relatives, spouse and significant others is pretty premature.
Uh oh. I see the feminist target on your back…
Watch will be a monumental failure.
Thought your name was “Sean”, or did you just copy/paste.
The Watch is JUST GETTING STARTED!!!…..Apps are coming, Research is coming, notification by glance, the “pocketwatch” problem is being addressed.
The first result of the Watch will be the reduction in phone damage from DROPPING the phone……..
How many times have you dropped your phone or nearly dropped it fishing it out of your pocket, purse, glovebox, jacket, drawer………..
The second result will be the discrete glance notification option…….
Then we will be offfff to the races with taptic touch utilization scenarios yet to be created……..
By allllll means put your money where your mouth is and go out and short AAPL stock……!!!
I suppose it will reduce the number of damaged iPhones.. But doesn’t that also mean that you’re just replacing it with another device that is even more exposed to bumps, scratches and the elements and costs almost as much as the phone?
Nice job with your analysis MDN!
Past failed propaganda wars against Apple:
The iPhone will only sell to Apple geeks
It’s too expensive!
No keyboard = failure!
No Adobe flash =. failure!
I like our strategy, I like it a lot!
iPhone users are sheep buying inferior products
It’s just a big iPod touch
It sounds like a feminine hygiene product.
No USB port = failure
It’s just a consumption product
Antenna-gate
Bend-gate
In other news, Apple Watch risks alienating Amish community.
Nobody outside of Apple thought anyone would pay $600 for a cell phone. Now many MILLIONS of people pay upwards of $900 for a 6 Plus. Thus, Apple redefined what sort of device people would want to carry with them to perform many computing tasks as well as make phone calls.
Apple is now about to work that same change in what sort of things people wear on their wrists. The pundits and naysayers will be stunned how Apple has created a new product which millions of men AND women want, something they didn’t know they would use so much, because they had never seen anything like this before. Fashion is fickle. Dents in the universe, not so much.
Funny, my wife has asked for an Apple Watch and she is planning on taking her Rolex off her wrist to make room for her Apple Watch. The only other tech device she has ever asked for was an iPad. I had to push her to use an iPhone.
Alienate women? Are you kidding? All but one of the Apple Watch sport models are designed for females? Hey Apple men exercise too! But I don’t know any man who would wear a candy green, baby blue, pink or white watch strap. Oh yeah they make the one all-black Darth Vader model but it’s hard to work out with that big black helmet on… I need an Apple Watch sport with a black, navy blue, or dark brown strap. I am male, I represent 50% of the human race. We buy things…
See yesterday’s 9to5mac article entitled “Third-party Apple Watch straps coming soon with stainless steel bands under $100”
Im a man and Im ordering a green strap which I will switch back and forth with he milanese loop.
So profoundly and pathetically stupid! Is there any product on the planet that pleases 100% of people?
And basic business principle — Do NOT try to be all things to all people. You’ll end up pleasing no-one.
That all said, the potential market is huge. The fact that some people don’t like it means NOTHING.
Yeah, this is why one of the premier archetypal women of all time, Christie Turlington, is such a fan.
Landor= Renowned in the creative fraternity as old fashioned, traditional, unimaginative, staid, boring, grey not the sort of agency that Apple would give a second look to but unsurprisingly àppealing to those clients of it quoted there.
I expect Apple Watch to increase our sex drive and action. So there! 😛
I salute MDN’s analysis here. Now if only so many others would realize that the vast majority of the news that they read is similarly constructed.
I’m a fat old woman who is interested in Apple Watch because of the health tracking potential. Will have to see it in use before deciding. No doubt in 3 generations it will have more sensors and capabilities. But still, intriguing. It if becomes a genuinely useful fitness tool I will be buying it. Men and women alike will be interested if it can be used in a practical manner to improve health.
When Apple can, finally, develop a watch sensor that reads blood glucose through the skin and couple it to the iPhone to monitor blood sugar for diabetics, the game will change dramatically.
The day Apple can couple that blood glucose monitor function, through the iPhone, to an insulin pump, they will have to start up two more production lines, one for watches and another for iPhones.
I think this is the sort of thing is what being worked on in a lab in Cupertino. The ability to monitor critical, and treat, outpatient health parameters will change (dare I say revolutionize) patient care.
Some people are trying to get AAPL lower so they can buy it, then ride the slingshot back up.
I’m sure the ‘geeky’ guys will just love the fscking butterfly.
I’ve heard so many woman want the Apple Watch. I don’t see any alienating of the females at all. That’s why Apple made two sizes so if the woman want the smaller size they have that choice. I know a few that actually like the bigger size watch.
So this story is pretty much FUD!
That must be why my wife has been pestering me about when Apple Watch pre-orders start.