“The debut of Apple Inc.’s first new device in five years looked more like an event from the fashion world rather than the tech world,” Tim Higgins, Jing Cao, and Amy Thomson report for Bloomberg. “This time, there weren’t long lines of faithful gadget lovers waiting for hours and days to buy the latest product from the Cupertino, California-based company.”
“Paris’s Colette, London’s Dover Street Market and Tokyo’s Isetan are among the high-end department stores joining the global rollout of the Apple Watch, which ranges in price from $349 to $17,000 for a gold version,” Higgins, Cao, and Thomson report. “Those shops, plus an undisclosed number of authorized resellers, may be the only places where people can actually buy the new smartwatch. Apple Stores are only showcasing the device, and the company is urging customers to place orders online.”
“Angela Ahrendts, Apple’s retail and online sales chief, has directed staff across eight countries and Hong Kong to send shoppers to its website to buy the device,” Higgins, Cao, and Thomson report. “‘Classic fashion industry play,’ Howard Feller, a partner at MMG Advisors, an investment bank that specializes in retail, jewelry and fashion, said of the Apple Watch introduction. ‘Every one of those locations are where trends are set, where new brands are introduced and where the customer who is absolutely hyper sensitive to the latest fashion trends will go to see what’s new for the season. Everything from the fashion world trickles down from there.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This rollout is genius, but we might be a bit biased right now as we sit here exploring our new Apple Watches which just arrived within the hour!