“In October, Apple updated its Apple Watch software to let apps run on the watch itself instead of working as iPhone extensions, mitigating the absolute interdependence of the initial scenario. The second version of the Watch OS also features new watch faces, improved third-party apps and better overall performance,” Justin Jaffe writes for CNET. “But those improvements were ultimately incremental. And in the meantime, the Watch has seen some fairly meaty price cuts at mainstream retailers like Best Buy.”
MacDailyNews Take: It’s called a loss leader. And it means the Apple Watch is a success, a coveted product “that’ll get them in the doors,” not anything negative as Jaffe intimates. Anyone who implies that a loss leader is anything other than what it is, either has no idea about the basics of retailing or they’re lying about the product in question.
“Though no official invitations have been made yet, Apple’s next big event is rumored to be scheduled for this coming March. Given that the original Apple Watch would be coming up on its first birthday in April 2016, it’s likely that such an event would be focused on its successor,” Jaffe writes. “One widely reported rumor out of South Korea, first sourced by gforgames.com, predicts that the Apple Watch 2’s form factor won’t diverge much, if at all, from the original’s rectangular, iPod Nano-ish essence. And perhaps that’s for the best. According to CNET’s Scott Stein, ‘in terms of craftsmanship, there isn’t a more elegantly made piece of wearable tech’ than the Apple Watch.”
MacDailyNews Take: That is certainly the truth. The Digital Crowns on all of our Apple Watches, by the way, are working as they did the day we got them back on April 24th, so the build quality also reigns supreme.
“Other possibilities being discussed include the ability to track sleep and smart straps that would include extra sensors for tracking fitness,” Jaffe writes. “In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook hinted in an interview last month that the company could build ‘something adjacent to the watch’ that would be more medically focused and would require US Food and Drug Administration approval. That could be an app, he said, or ‘something else.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: One more thing: We’ve already gone through this loss leader crap from Anti-Apple types with the iPhone. How did that turn out?