“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.
