Apple Announces Nylon Watch Bands, Drops Starting Apple Watch Price to $299

[MacRumors]

At Apple's March 2016 event today in its Cupertino headquarters, the company announced a brand new band material for its Apple Watch: woven nylon. Apple also announced several new colors for other Apple Watch bands, including a black Milanese Loop. The Apple Watch will also see a price drop, with the Apple Watch Sport now starting at $299.

The new woven nylon bands, which are the signature addition to the new "spring collection" of Apple Watch bands, are priced at $49 and come in 7 colors: Gold / Red, Gold / Royal Blue, Royal Blue, Pink, Pearl, Scuba Blue and Black.

Other new bands include Red and Marine Blue Classic Buckles, Marigold and Blue Jay Modern Buckles, White and Storm Gray Leather Loops, Space Black Milanese Loop, and Yellow, Apricot and Royal Blue Sport Bands.

Article Link: Apple Announces Nylon Watch Bands, Drops Starting Apple Watch Price to $299

 

[foxcub6]

Not A mention of software update yet ! Hopefully later

 

[chriscrk]

They should have made watch bands with new sensors imo...

Does anyone think they'll release a new Apple Watch this year? Or they will update every two years?

 

[Oblivious.Robot]

Just after I buy it for almost full price!

 

[Pakaku]

At least they look like something Apple would sell.

 

[Andres Cantu]

More reasonable price, I guess. But I don't expect it to be permanent (2nd gen will probably be $349).

 

[BMcCoy]

At least they look like something Apple would sell.

Big price drop..
Sales must be lower than they expected/want.

 

[vooke]

Underwhelming

 

[gkarris]

The sale prices were still lower...

 

[Benjamin Frost]

These are just ghastly. Sorry.

 

[dsburdette]

I'm interested in an Apple watch at a price point of about $99-$129. As someone who abandoned watches a long time ago, I just cannot get excited at all. That's not speaking against the array of features it has, but more that I'm completely disinterested in this category.

 

[myrtlebee]

The black nylon band looks nice. Hoped they made a leather loop for the 38 inch. Oh well, I'm waiting till Apple Watch 2 anyway.

 

[anzio]

Can't wait to buy these new bands.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

Big price drop..
Sales must be lower than they expected/want.

They sold for that much around Xmas. They just have room to discount and are taking advantage of that to drive more sales before they roll out an upgrade.

 

[576316]

These nylon bands don't look as nice as I thought they would.

 

[BlueMoon63]

Big price drop..
Sales must be lower than they expected/want.

We see this all the time and the same type of responses will come. bottom line is this does not mean sales are bad. Right now, you can but one Galaxy S7 and get one free and there is no way that is selling bad. Just wanting more out there and less for Apple chances to persuade others to switch. Same for the Apple Watch. Get more sold so others won't buy when competitors come out with more.

 

[bakerzdosen]

I paid full retail at the Apple Store for my 42mm (stainless) and paid like $380 for an open box 38mm stainless for my wife, I'm not sure why people are so down about this price drop. Yeah, it's not huge, but it represents something like a real world $40 off existing prices.

That doesn't mean they aren't selling. A $100+ drop would mean that. This means that they're over the initial wave of first adopter buyers and they have found what they feel is a comfortable price point going forward (including v2 hardware.)

It doesn't undercut early adopters (a la original iPhone) much at all and yet it probably maintains an acceptable profit for the company.

 

[xiggy4ever]

These are just ghastly. Sorry.

Seems to me that all of these watch bands are geared towards the females..... Personally i was hoping for better.

 

[Mac 128]

I paid full retail at the Apple Store for my 42mm (stainless) and paid like $380 for an open box 38mm stainless for my wife, I'm not sure why people are so down about this price drop. Yeah, it's not huge, but it represents something like a real world $40 off existing prices.

That doesn't mean they aren't selling. A $100+ drop would mean that. This means that they're over the initial wave of first adopter buyers and they have found what they feel is a comfortable price point going forward (including v2 hardware.)

It doesn't undercut early adopters (a la original iPhone) much at all and yet it probably maintains an acceptable profit for the company.

It doesn't help Apple's image either. Other than the original iPhone (which was a brand new market category for the entire cell phone industry - which the watch is not), I don't think Apple has ever dropped the price on a product less than a year old without releasing a new one to take its place.

Very telling.

 

[Westside guy]

I don't know that this is really a price drop - other than the Apple Store, most places I saw were already selling them for $299.

 

[Mac 128]

Seems to me that all of these watch bands are geared towards the females..... Personally i was hoping for better.

Cook mentioned only 1/3 of all watch customers are changing their bands. Chances are a very large percentage of those customers are women, who do tend to accessorize more than men. So this isn't surprising.

 

[campingsk8er]

As per apple store app, new nylon bands are $49.
[doublepost=1458584144][/doublepost]As per apple store app, new nylon bands are $49.

 

[xiggy4ever]

I'm interested in an Apple watch at a price point of about $99-$129. As someone who abandoned watches a long time ago, I just cannot get excited at all. That's not speaking against the array of features it has, but more that I'm completely disinterested in this category.

Seems to me that you will never get an apple watch then!
At least not until Watch 2.0 comes out but who wants to buy old technology????????
[doublepost=1458584218][/doublepost]

I'm interested in an Apple watch at a price point of about $99-$129. As someone who abandoned watches a long time ago, I just cannot get excited at all. That's not speaking against the array of features it has, but more that I'm completely disinterested in this category.

Seems to me that you will never get an apple watch then!
At least not until Watch 2.0 comes out but who wants to buy old technology????????

 

[Mac 128]

Seems to me that all of these watch bands are geared towards the females..... Personally i was hoping for better.

Cook mentioned only 1/3 of all watch customers are changing their bands. Chances are a very large percentage of those customers are women, who do tend to accessorize more than men. So this isn't surprising.

 

[bakerzdosen]

It doesn't help Apple's image either. Other than the original iPhone (which was a brand new market category for the entire cell phone industry - which the watch is not), I don't think Apple has ever dropped the price on a product less than a year old without releasing a new one to take its place.

Very telling.

Well, I will point out (now that the Apple Store is back up) that it's only a price drop on the low end Sport watches. The Stainless seem to be the same price as before.