Apple Offering $50 Off Apple Watch With Any iPhone Purchase in Select Apple Stores

[bunnicula]

No, anyone who wants the experience can't always drive to the nearest Apple Store, especially when that store is hundreds of miles away.

If Target is truly just a warehouse for people to pick up an Watch sight unseen as a gift while they're shopping for housewares, or groceries, then that's great. The problem I have with it, as I'm assuming racer does, is that Target is replacing the Apple Store in markets were there are none. Also, Target is generally in the same markets where customers will also find a Best Buy, and probably a Sprint or T-Mobile store where the non-carrier specific watches are also sold. And there are also online retailers who will gladly ship to the customer without charging shipping or tax (B&H Photo) which can serve the function of delivering a gift straight to a customer's door. And in those markets where there's already another retailer, those other merchants will also likely offer a much better experience to the customer who needs to try on the watch and understand how it will work for them. Target may just as likely cost Apple as sale as luck into selling it, especially when it's $250 more than any other watch they offer in store, and more than an iPad mini 4, or depending on the model an iPad Air 2.

People who pick up a Rolex at Costco, are doing so because they are just using it as a warehouse. Those customers already know what it is and what it does. Target appears to be replacing the jewelry store model Apple has adopted to showcase the watch, for customers who have no idea what the Watch is, or how they would fit it into their lives. Customers who don't already know their wrist size, of which model will look best on their wrist. I shudder to imagine the useless sales staff at Target with a Stainless Sport box opened up and contents splayed across a cheap counter full of Casio and Timex watches, trying to figure out how the Sport band tucks under the strap, on a wrist that's too large.

Target as warehouse, fine. Target as showroom -- disaster.

I don't think Target is a showroom. I do think that Best Buy has done a very good job with their showroom model for the AW Sport and the SS Milanese. They have the same showroom table that Apple uses and they have reps who go through the whole try-on process with the customer. They don't carry the full line, but it's not an Apple Store.

I'm pretty sure that people who want the showroom experience with ANY major brand have to travel to a showroom. It's not Apple's fault that some people live far away from the nearest Apple store. I'm thinking these folks are glad to have Best Buy, Target, etc as a place to pick up Apple gear rather than having to suck it up and order it online or wait until they can travel to the Apple store.

I think the sales logic, from Apple's perspective, is not "our items is VERY exclusive... not just any poor slob that wanders into Target for some toilet paper should be allowed to buy this EXCLUSIVE item, no sir."

I think it is more a "we recognize that some of our customers do not have an Apple store near their homes, so we want to put some of our basic line of watches into a few retail locations so those people can try one on and possibly pick one up instead of deciding against it or having to wait until they're near an Apple store to buy."

Which is just common sense. It's a smart watch. It's not a Faberge egg.

 

[SSDGUY]

Phones have had clocks on them since long before the iPhone. Why do people blame the decline in mechanical watch sales on the rise of the smartphone?

Not sure people really assert that the smart phone is the specific watch demise culprit. I think I may have decreased my use of a wrist watch when I had a flip phone. But the iphone certainly sealed the deal. These days we not only check time when grabbing our phones, but also check on emails, texts etc. Other than the slight convenience of having the time right on your wrist, a smartphone really provides all you'd need. Seems to me it's more like a super charged pocket-watch. In my case, I don't want two devices to manage on my person (wrist and pocket) especially for the price. If an Apple Watch could be a phone without the iphone it might be a little more intriguing.

 

[Mac 128]

I think the sales logic, from Apple's perspective, is not "our items is VERY exclusive... not just any poor slob that wanders into Target for some toilet paper should be allowed to buy this EXCLUSIVE item, no sir."

I think it is more a "we recognize that some of our customers do not have an Apple store near their homes, so we want to put some of our basic line of watches into a few retail locations so those people can try one on and possibly pick one up instead of deciding against it or having to wait until they're near an Apple store to buy."

Which is just common sense. It's a smart watch. It's not a Faberge egg.

This is a bit of an extreme characterization. I'm not suggesting the Watch is "exclusive", but Apple has positioned it as more than just a tablet, or phone. And it needs more care in presentation than either of those two devices, which largely sell themselves with a few minutes of playing with it by themselves. The watch is stuck on a demo loop, that's more confusing than helpful. And you point out yourself in your own narrative that people will want to try them on -- so Target IS A SHOWROOM. And as I pointed out there's a bestbuy in almost every market there's a Target. So why sully the personalized experience, which is essential to buying any watch, much less a smart watch that costs $275 more than any watch Target sells, and needs more explanation of how it works and can justify the cost for the customer; by selling it at Target, when the Best Buy, often in the same shopping plaza can do a much better job?

If Target just has a locked display case, and boxes on the shelf for someone who's already pre-sold to grab and throw in the cart with the toilet paper (also an image that would likely make Jony Ive cringe), I'm all for it. Anything more and it's likely a mistake that probably makes Angela Ahrendts cringe.

 

[qwa]

i bought the watch, i have the watch I'm entitled to express my opinion...!
---
2011 rMBP13" i5 2.5GHz 8GB, 2014 rMBP13" 2.6Ghz i5 16GB, 2014 MBP13" i7 3.0Ghz 16GB
iPad2 64GB, iPad4 128GB x 2, iPadAir 128GB, iPadMini 2 64GB, iPadMini 4 128GB, 5 x ATVs, Apple TM, Synology NAS

your tag line says otherwise

 

[pdaholic]

Just saw that Pebble also dropped the price of their watch by $50 today. Perhaps another sign of how this tech isn't doing as well as hoped...

 

[loon3y]

are they all in shanghai? i don't see how its going to be marketable in the US. To a 5,000,000 + millionaire kids in china it'll be great.

 

[AFEPPL]

your tag line says otherwise

Ive been rumbled, caught out... I'm making up all my issues.

Would you like a photo in front of this screen?
I also don't have ATV4 listed or another rMBP...

 

[maxsix]

A very un-Apple like promotion.

Desperation reveals itself.