Apple Expands Apple Watch Marketing Efforts With New Multi-Page Spread in Vogue Magazine

[LordVic]

What does it say if an Apple product needs to be marketed so hard?

absolutely nothing.

Apple has always had a pretty hefty marketing budget and campaign. The iPod had years worth of very fancy and expensive commercials on debuting during prime time TV.

so did the iPhone and iPad.

So what if they're advertising the watch? how else are they going to showcase that they have a product for sale for the rest of the world that aren't geeks like us who browse tech sites

 

[TRICKorDEVICE]

This must be another Apple product you have to see and hold to understand. So far, aside from some subjective fashion appeal, I don't see how Watch is any different than the stuff Android has been pumping out for well over a year with marginal success.

Well, for starters it is iPhone compatible, whereas Android Wear isn't natively. Which means it is tightly integrated with iOS. Furthermore, while it is an opinion, some would argue that it is a better looking watch. Finally, most of the functionality is the same, but it does do some other things, we don't know full functionality yet.

Also, while it might do the same things, it is yet to be seen if it does them better. For example I've heard the heart rate tracking on Wear devices isn't great. Based on Apple's track record (Touch ID, etc.) I would expect this to work really well on Watch

 

[Rettogo]

Many companies would love to get lost too.

1 & 3 have already been announced, I believe. I'm not sure 2 was ever Apple's goal. Apple has a way of making you think twice about that second child you were planning next year so you can have the new Retina Display thinner, faster, more awesomer MacBook Pro this year. To hell with biological clocks. This is the Apple Watch. It will calculate your fertility period and the quality of your eggs. That second baby can wait a little while longer. Ha!

 

[ChrisNH]

I'm not altogether sure focusing more on the band and less on the watch is going to entice people to part with $500 for one of these. Especially when people bang watches into all sorts of things, scratch them along surfaces, and generally treat them with a bit of disregard.

 

[spazzcat]

This must be another Apple product you have to see and hold to understand. So far, aside from some subjective fashion appeal, I don't see how Watch is any different than the stuff Android has been pumping out for well over a year with marginal success.

Pebble has made ~$9.1 million in a little over a day. Smartwatches are pretty big...

 

[Max(IT)]

IMO, the darn Apple Watch is just ugly, and any ad agency can put lipstick on a pig. "Yeah, yeah, Apple's entering the fashion wearables market"…but it doesn't quite matter if the consumer is not happy with the actual style.

Quite subjective.
Imo it's beautiful, but I'm waiting to see one in my nearest Apple store.

 

[LordVic]

I cannot believe that the watch will not work without an iPhone. I would assume it works just fine but with a limited feature set.

unfortauntely nothing has been said yet. we're just speculating, nothing more.

I'm willign to bet that the watch wouldn't stop working. Apple isn't that looney as to require you carrying your phone 100% of the time you wear a watch.

however, I can see limited functionality without the phone connected. How limited that functionality though remains to be seen.

 

[Max(IT)]

Apple Watch promises to be the most aggressively marketed device in recorded history. Apple has got to spend their cash somewhere.

I strongly suspect they are going to make serious money out of it, mate

 

[aukermania]

but I can't go running with this watch (without my iPhone)

You can and it will record the data until you match up with your iPhone again later. It would have limited functionality. I don't think Siri will take you too far without your cellular data.

 

[Piggie]

I cannot believe that the watch will not work without an iPhone. I would assume it works just fine but with a limited feature set.

Well, I guess it depends what you mean by "work"

The watch plays music. Yes? A fairly basic fundamental operation, but how do you get the music onto it?

I'm not aware anyone here yet know just what the Watch will do, if you do buy one and don't have an iPhone.

I'm sure there will be some people who do this, and it will be interesting what you will be able to do with it.

Will you be able to connect it to a iMac and sync things across on that, for example?

 

[Roessnakhan]

Image

Image

That really makes me hope for a Pixar-themed watchface to go with it.

 

[Max(IT)]

The watch will (presumably) give a somewhat accurate count of your steps and a measure of heart rate without your phone, but I hear what you're saying.

I like GPS tracking on my runs - and I'm hoping we'll see that in a future generation watch.

That's the main no-buy point in my case.
But I don't know if you can actually track your activity without the GPS....
For now I'm set to buy the 2.0 version

 

[cube]

absolutely nothing.

Apple has always had a pretty hefty marketing budget and campaign. The iPod had years worth of very fancy and expensive commercials on debuting during prime time TV.

so did the iPhone and iPad.

So what if they're advertising the watch? how else are they going to showcase that they have a product for sale for the rest of the world that aren't geeks like us who browse tech sites

I don't remember such a big hype-building campaign prior to release before.

 

[Max(IT)]

Indeed, and yes, I'm sure there will be a LOT in reality.

We here all understand this and is obvious and well known.
This would be like me buying a plant, not realising I had the wrong type of soil in my garden.
For someone into plants and gardens it would be totally obvious it would never grow there.
But hey, I saw the nice plant in the advert so I wanted one

Of course, there will be a LOT of totally non technical people who will find this out at the last second at the Apple store.
I would also presume this will be made quite obvious at the "Buy your Apple Watch here" website, that you need an iPhone for this product.

We may think it's obvious and funny.
But so far, the media adverts are very much glossing over this fact.

It's not like they are showing an iPhone along side it, with a statement like "The new perfect accessory for your iPhone"
So everyone totally got the message.

If anything, so far, it's almost being hidden.

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You don't think it's possible that someone who does not have an iPhone, perhaps they like other phones for other reasons, might see this and also like the Apple Watch ?

Are you sure an iPhone is needed for it to work?
That's what I'm supposing, but I don't really know. Do you have evidences I'm missing?
I found a note on their website about functions requiring iPhone 5 or later, but I don't know if all functions don't work without it.

 

[filmantopia]

Love how Apple let's the product do the talking.

Absolutely. The intense work they put into their devices pays off when they can simply advertise with uninhibited look at what it is/does. Good luck for other companies attempting to show their smartwatch in such a close and detailed manner in Vogue.

 

[groovyd]

Actually, you can. Your distance won't be as accurate (only measured by step count) and your track/route will be missing. Everything else can still be measured and will be synced to your iPhone as soon as they are connected.

I think the watch will utilize it's own internal gps during runs, just at a lower sample rate.

 

[Max(IT)]

and this product says "ugly"

... in your opinion

 

[LordVic]

I don't remember such a big hype-building campaign prior to release before.

maybe something regional, but Apple marketting has always been really "in your face" in my market.

as I said. There were iPhone, ipod, IPad commercials constantly. Then there's the "tech blog" marketting campaign they run on (some of the tech blogs literally jizz their pants everytime Apple releases something, And apple encourages it). and I'm sure most everyone remembers the Mac V PC commercials. Dozen or so of them, Allover prime time TV.

Apple is a Marketing Company. They reportedly spent nearly 1 Billion internationally on Advertising in 2013. Not sure the 2014 numbers yet

 

[cube]

maybe something regional, but Apple marketting has always been really "in your face" in my market.

as I said. There were iPhone, ipod, IPad commercials constantly. Then there's the "tech blog" marketting campaign they run on (some of the tech blogs literally jizz their pants everytime Apple releases something, And apple encourages it). and I'm sure most everyone remembers the Mac V PC commercials. Dozen or so of them, Allover prime time TV.

Apple is a Marketing Company. They reportedly spent nearly 1 Billion internationally on Advertising in 2013. Not sure the 2014 numbers yet

I said prior to release.

 

[LordVic]

I said prior to release.

One of the biggest reasons I think you're seeing tit though is because of the time between announcement and release.

This is one of the first times that I remember where Apple announced a product, months to 1/2 a year before retail availability.

Maybe thats why you're noticing more because the greater length of leadup time?

 

[powertoold]

People still read magazines?

 

[firewood]

Apple has lost its way.

...

I use my watch to tell the time, and I have no interest in it doing anything else than telling me that.

Apple has not lost its way because telling time is not what an expensive watch is for. It's an alternative to wearing expensive jewelry, or carrying a authentic designer handbag (et.al.), especially for men who need an hi-tech excuse to do such.

That's a multi-Billion dollar high-profit-margin business, exactly the thing Apple likes to do with "its way".

Install linux on a Dell if you just want cheap configurable computing.

 

[cmChimera]

One of the biggest reasons I think you're seeing tit though is because of the time between announcement and release.

This is one of the first times that I remember where Apple announced a product, months to 1/2 a year before retail availability.

Maybe thats why you're noticing more because the greater length of leadup time?

iPhone.

 

[Max(IT)]

Looking good to be honest. No specs, no intro. Only pictures, beautiful pictures that says a lot.

Apple's typical.

But I can understand tech nerds in this forums don't like it. They prefer a Samsung's adv listing how many cores, how many GHz and how many gimmicks the product has

Relax, is a joke

 

[LordVic]

iPhone.

iPhone advertising was pretty prevalent during the interim time between announcement and sales up here too. Which was odd, considering the first iPhone wasn't even for sale in Canada