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Apple Recruiting Pro Athletes to Test iWatch's Fitness Capabilities
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What if there are high end Swiss watch designers who create amazing looking bands for the more expensive models? Will that not entice people who want the modern multi-sensor, cloud connected functionality?
Why would they not have credibility?
They are tracking athletic performance, the way a runner might track his.
I only noticed one thing in that photo and it wasn't Kobe or a Hublot (whatever that is). Actually I noticed two things.
High-end Swiss watch brands, like Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, A. Lange & Sohne, Vacheron Constantin, Breguet, etc would not want to dilute their brand image by working with a mass market watch.
Apple's watch is going to be a mass market watch not a high end status watch. Apple must sell these in the millions to make it worth it's while. Plus a high end watch lasts forever and Apple likes it's customers to upgrade at least every few cycles & eventually obsoletes older ones. You can do that with a $200 watch but not a $6-20K watch.
Also the wealthy people around here have top docs to worry about their health & assistants to worry about their schedule.
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Someone getting paid to wear a watch and talk about how great it is is not going to convince me that it must really be a great product. It may very well be a great product, but I'm not interested in what a paid spokesman says about it.
Sports people have been used to endorse Rolex and Omega and Tag Heuer for years. This is nothing new at all.
I don't care about which athlete is wearing one, or whether it lives up to the ideal of being a luxury watch. These watches will sell themselves, particularly if their health focus lives up to the hype.
This will be a best-seller, mostly because folk who jumped on the latest iPhone/iPad ecosystem are eager to see what new technology Apple has come up with. They'll all be buying one and that includes me.
This will be a best-seller, mostly because folk who jumped on the latest iPhone/iPad ecosystem are eager to see what new technology Apple has come up with. They'll all be buying one and that includes me.
Well that's true.
But the original point (not yours but the other guy's) that healthy people do not need to use a tracking device is ********.
Have you been reading the rumors? There will be several designs ranging from low cost to high end models for several thousands. There will be a model for different markets. They want wealthy celebrities to be wearing them as free publicity.
And please, they'll have top doctors but they want the convenience of monitoring their own health without being in touch with their doctor every minute.
I suppose it's possible that Apple position the iWatch around 500-1000 or even 2000-3000 (very unlikely) dollars segments, but there is absolutely no chance that they will be going after high-end segments (typically above 15000 dollars).
Apple has one of the strongest brands but it is not a luxury brand.
It's a mass market device.
All I know is that I thought the iPad was a stupid idea when it was announced. Just iOS, no OSX? I could not imagine the need or use for a second iOS device, a larger iPhone. I already have an iPhone! GREAT GOING APPLE. 
Now I can't live without my iPad! Once you have it and use it, you just get it. And if they consulted with people first, it would never have been released.
So I have faith that Apple knows what they're doing once again. It may sound stupid in rumors, it may even sound like it's not must-have the day of announcement, but I think within months we'll all wonder, again, how we did without it.
I'm not saying go into it blindly. Just wait and see instead of knocking it before you even see it or try it. I think they've at least gained the benefit of the doubt to at least try without being talked to like they're some other company who puts out everything, good or bad, to see what sticks.
Now I can't live without my iPad! Once you have it and use it, you just get it. And if they consulted with people first, it would never have been released.
So I have faith that Apple knows what they're doing once again. It may sound stupid in rumors, it may even sound like it's not must-have the day of announcement, but I think within months we'll all wonder, again, how we did without it.
I'm not saying go into it blindly. Just wait and see instead of knocking it before you even see it or try it. I think they've at least gained the benefit of the doubt to at least try without being talked to like they're some other company who puts out everything, good or bad, to see what sticks.
No, because those people do not want an Apple watch, they want a Swiss masterpiece that not every man and his dog has. I'm afraid Apple will have it's work cut out to compete in that market, but I doubt it will cost more than $600 max, and I also doubt it will come with half the sensors being rumoured.
No one is going to spend several thousand on anything that has a flat battery halfway through the day.
I have no doubt that lots of people will like the iWatch and will buy one. I also have no doubt that 6 months from now the iWatch will be just as uninteresting and useless to me as it is now. I further have no doubt that there are a lot of people out there like me who prefer mechanical watches and won't be getting an iWatch either.
Sooooo your calling someone out because they may not have read information that for all anyone knows, including you, is 100% made up lies.
Kobe is still a top athlete in the world whose training regime is top notch. He doesn't need to play NBA games to give them feed back. Though, I believe he'll still play at a high level for 2-3 more years. Last year was a fluke and he rushed it.
Listen. There will be a range of models somewhere under $1000. Possibly starting under $500. There will ALSO be a special class of models in the thousands. They will all have the same functionality (save for GB or something), but in different tiers because of their band designs.
Don't think of it like the iphone or ipad pricing model. It's a range of devices to appeal to people's different design tastes. Different classes of designs, way different prices, same functionality.
I agree with you except your last point.
Many people who are into mechanical watches may still buy one just because it's an interesting watch (I will unless it looks like that LG one).
Also it may not look like a watch but more like a fitness tracker or a rubber wristband.
That will certainly appeal to you and me more I think.
Although I'm sure some people consciously buy because Kobe or whoever has a product, I don't think that's the norm or the real strategy here. More like seeing the athlete/celebrity with it subconsciously makes one think more highly of it, which can lead to choosing it over a competitor down the road.
Listen?
Do you have a crystal ball?
Can you also tell me the lottery combo for next week's superlotto?
Also tell me when the next market crash is coming so I can be short.
Of course I don't know for sure, but it stands to reason. Of course Apple would want to sell millions of the lower priced cheap models, and several of a higher tier. Apple wants their product to be a status symbol. Why would a celebrity wear a cheap watch when all of their friends are wearing expensive ones?
But if there is an expensive high class iWatch, it'll be the one everyone with money wants.
The top end phones all cost a similar ammount of money.. the days of the iPhone being a sign of wealth are long long gone and exist only in your head my friend.. in the UK they are the chavs choice of phone. Ip4s are everywhere.free to get with a small data plan.. not exactly the rich elite sector of society getting them either.. . if you want you mobile device to say something about you.. which you obviously do, then you definitely do NOT get an iPhone...