Apple Offers Developers a Chance to Buy Apple Watch Sport With Guaranteed April 28 Delivery Date

[MikhailT]

Now we have top tier Celebrities getting their watch first.
Then Developers, developers and developers.
then comes, we mere mortals ..

I think preferential treatment is the 'new' game in town as far as Apple is concerned.

You do know that's always been the case for majority of the companies for a very long time?

This is how you build marketing and apps/resources for your products. You give free stuff to celebrities that will be in mass public events, so that people can see it. You give it to developers to build apps, so when you release the products, there will be a lot of apps available and includes a few killer apps that makes people want to get one.

Welcome to the club if you just realized this.

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Win a watch? Sounds to me like it's a lottery to be entered into a lottery to be allowed to purchase a watch early.

Doh, thanks, I meant win the chance to buy one now and I corrected my post.

 

[/dev/toaster]

Win a watch? Sounds to me like it's a lottery to be entered into a lottery to be allowed to purchase a watch early.

No different than when Google did it for glass purchases.

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Now we have top tier Celebrities getting their watch first.
Then Developers, developers and developers.
then comes, we mere mortals ..

I think preferential treatment is the 'new' game in town as far as Apple is concerned.

Celebrities are very important for marketing, look how long they have been giving Colbert and iPhone or iPad. "mere mortals" are not influencers.

Developers are the ones writing apps, an empty appstore does Apple no good. They NEED developers to jump in and write quality apps. "mere mortals" are not the ones developing apps.

Developers spend a great deal of time and energy on their apps. Hell, I think all registered devs that have an app in the store should have a chance at purchasing one. Not for those who get a dev account to get things early.

 

[ctdonath]

https://developer.apple.com/watch/order/

"Sorry, you don’t have access.
The Apple ID you signed in with does not have permission to view this page."

Gah!

 

[kgelner]

Wish I knew how Apple was decided who to send those to

I'm an active iOS developer, working on an Apple Watch app. I could REALLY use a device for testing but my own pre-order ships mid-May.

I would have gone for this offer if they'd sent me one but I didn't get anything. I wish I knew what it was that triggered Apple to "know" you were developing a watch app and should get an invite... I also didn't get an invite to the Apple Watch testing center earlier in the year to test my application.

I don't really think it makes sense at non-developers to get mad about this though, as it just means they will get better performing apps sooner!

 

[CosyCounterDev]

I ordered 2 and still got the email. I did already submit and get my Apple Watch app approved though, maybe that has something to do with it? Do others who got the email have Apple Watch apps approved or in review?

That's a good point. I also got my Apple Watch app approved last week within 2 days from submission. And now I've received this invitation too, which I registered for immediately.

 

[DDustiNN]

I'm an active iOS developer, working on an Apple Watch app. I could REALLY use a device for testing but my own pre-order ships mid-May.

I would have gone for this offer if they'd sent me one but I didn't get anything. I wish I knew what it was that triggered Apple to "know" you were developing a watch app and should get an invite... I also didn't get an invite to the Apple Watch testing center earlier in the year to test my application.

I don't really think it makes sense at non-developers to get mad about this though, as it just means they will get better performing apps sooner!

I don't think there is a trigger other than being a developer... I think it's just random beyond that. Like I said earlier in the thread, I do not yet have a WatchKit app ready to go. I mean it's not even entered into iTunesConnect yet. So I don't know how they would "know" I am developing an app.

 

[kMacAustin]

What Gives?

I ordered the watch they want to let develops get on April 28th and my order says I can’t get it before June.

Apple has totally screwed up this launch.

 

[DreamPod]

I would have gone for this offer if they'd sent me one but I didn't get anything.

Why do so many people think Apple already sent all the emails to every one they are going to send to? They only started sending them a few hours ago, it takes time to send out tons of emails.

 

[Ed217]

Win a watch? Sounds to me like it's a lottery to be entered into a lottery to be allowed to purchase a watch early.

Yes, that's exactly what it says:

"You have the chance to purchase one (1) Apple Watch Sport with 42mm Silver Aluminum Case and Blue Sport Band that’s guaranteed to ship by April 28, 2015. "

The key words being 'chance' and 'purchase'.

 

[/dev/toaster]

I ordered the watch they want to let develops get on April 28th and my order says I can’t get it before June.

Apple has totally screwed up this launch.

Why do you think you deserve it faster than a dev ? And not for nothing, but if you wanted it sooner you shouldn't have waited to pre-order.

 

[rock6079]

I'm an active iOS developer, working on an Apple Watch app. I could REALLY use a device for testing but my own pre-order ships mid-May.

I would have gone for this offer if they'd sent me one but I didn't get anything. I wish I knew what it was that triggered Apple to "know" you were developing a watch app and should get an invite... I also didn't get an invite to the Apple Watch testing center earlier in the year to test my application.

I don't really think it makes sense at non-developers to get mad about this though, as it just means they will get better performing apps sooner!

FYI, I'm not currently developing a watch app. I was sent the email. Coincidentally, I had followed the link, which said I did not have access (because I was not logged in at the time). Then I logged into member center and immediately received the email. I was not expecting the email because my pre-order (which ships in the first batch) is also from my dev account.

 

[Ed217]

It appears the E-Mails went out at noon Apple time. Bandwidth to send email is small, so they could easily send them all out in a very short time.

They may wait to see what response they get. If they had 1000 watches and only got 500 replies in the first day, they might send more out.

One question is what happens for those who have an existing watch on order for a much later date and they get selected. Is canceling the other order ok?

 

[rock6079]

I ordered the watch they want to let develops get on April 28th and my order says I can’t get it before June.

Apple has totally screwed up this launch.

Apple has earmarked a certain amount of product to get to devs to they can make apps for the Watch. This is a totally rational thing to do. I don't see how you can say they screwed up this launch.

 

[centauratlas]

You have to "register" to get one. It's not a line. Just click the button and they will randomly select (on the 23rd) from the pool of people. My real question is if they will offer returns.

Perhaps not all devs have gotten the email yet - I haven't and I've been a registered developer for a long time.

Unless the link in the article works.

 

[DDustiNN]

It appears the E-Mails went out at noon Apple time. Bandwidth to send email is small, so they could easily send them all out in a very short time.

They may wait to see what response they get. If they had 1000 watches and only got 500 replies in the first day, they might send more out.

One question is what happens for those who have an existing watch on order for a much later date and they get selected. Is canceling the other order ok?

Why would it not be okay? I would think you can still cancel any order as long as it hasn't started the shipping process yet.


I'd prefer them to expedite my existing order though, rather than giving me the chance to order a second watch...

 

[Ed217]

Why would it not be okay? I would think you can still cancel any order as long as it hasn't started the shipping process yet.

I'd prefer them to expedite my existing order though, rather than giving me the chance to order a second watch...

Yes, that's my guess as well. Would rather just get original one sooner, but this is not bad either...if...

 

[ninjadex]

Cage Match:

Celebrities vs. Developers. vs. Consumers

 

[johnalan]

Yes, that's my guess as well. Would rather just get original one sooner, but this is not bad either...if...

I also wonder if one can register for the opportunity and then not purchase if selected on the 23rd?

i.e. is there an obligation to buy if picked?

 

[DreamPod]

It appears the E-Mails went out at noon Apple time. Bandwidth to send email is small, so they could easily send them all out in a very short time.

How does it appear that, especially considering noon Apple Time was only an hour ago? And you're saying it takes a very short time to send out 500,000 or more emails? Have you done so before?

 

[Ed217]

I also wonder if one can register for the opportunity and then not purchase if selected on the 23rd?

i.e. is there an obligation to buy if picked?

My guess would be no, as any number of other things could prevent purchase. I expect they believe most selected will purchase, but if not, pop next one off the list.

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How does it appear that, especially considering noon Apple Time was only an hour ago? And you're saying it takes a very short time to send out 500,000 or more emails? Have you done so before?

Time based on date on email. Apple has about 10 million developers. I suspect a small subset was selected for this offer.

Clearly they are not likely to send the notices to any devs who are already in line for an early watch delivery. I would also expect they might weed out any devs with no store apps or no recent store activity. Those devs with lots of store activity might be good candidates for the offer list, but that's just a totally wild guess.

Given Apple web resources, I expect they could send out a whole bunch of emails in a short time if they wanted.

 

[mdelvecchio]

WOW you get a chance to BUY a predetermined size and color apple watch, you're too kind

you dont seem to understand -- this is for developers to test their products on, not consumers. when testing our apps, we dont care which color its running on.

it sounds like youre a consumer, not a developer.

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Apples arrogance and intrinsic need to continually treat those outside of their secret circle with careless disregard is blatantly obvious with this news.

It's a little late for Apple to be offering what they've likely had ready sooner than now, to those who need them as a tool to do their job. Bad Apple.

apple offers a sold-out product to every-day-joe developers like myself, and you feel thats something negative to bag on them about?

what a strange world you live in.

 

[DreamPod]

Time based on date on email. Apple has about 10 million developers. I suspect a small subset was selected for this offer.

How many emails did you see? What's the sampling size that makes you think they all seem to have been sent around noon? Obviously it was a flawed sample since the MacRumors article you are commenting about was posted earlier than noon.

 

[entropi]

WOW you get a chance to BUY a predetermined size and color apple watch, you're too kind

Yeah, what a joke this offer is...
(at least several % off the price and an offer weeks/months BEFORE all others - come on, the apps will be a pretty vital part of the watch in the future?!?!?)

I'm no dev, but the arrogance of Apple is just to much sometimes. I'm an mac-user since 93', but Apple really needs a lot more competition in all fields to bring the humility up a few notches. Treat one of your biggest resources a bit better, please?

 

[citi]

Which would explain why my 42MM Blue Sport has already moved to 'Preparing for Shipment' while my Stainless Steel watch is still 'Processing'

Basically, it's the model no one ordered.

 

[macduke]

If this were black on black then I might consider it. For now I'm still holding out for my try-on appointment next month. Hoping for the 42mm stainless steel with milanese loop.

If I order now, it's pretty unlikely that I would receive it before my May 18th try-on appointment, right? So if I don't like that style combo, or decide not to get one, I could still cancel my order then?