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Apple Removes 14 Apple Watch Bands From Website, Many Others 'Sold Out' Ahead of September Event
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Apparently I own four of the sold out out / unavailable straps. I guess that means I'm one of those idiots who wastes all his money on watch straps.
None of the existing bands/straps will be compatible as S4 is a complete redesign. You'll see for yourselves on Sept 12th.
The rumours I've seen are not predicting the S4 to be radically different, just a slightly bigger screen squeezed in to similar sized cases so the existing straps should still be compatible.
They'd be no constraints/removals if they were the same. size. If the screen is bigger/wider then the lugs will be in a different position.
I still expect them to be compatible. Not long to go so let's wait and see.
Totally agreed. I always buy both Apple and 3rd party accessories (mostly because 3rd party gives me more options), but Apple always wins out in the end. Everyone has their experiences, and in my own, I've found that 3rd party accessories would break, tear, or just fall apart when I've quite literally NEVER had a new Apple accessory so much as wear out. That's true for watch, phone, and iPad accessories. Again, it's my own experience and usage, but I've never been suspect of Apple quality and thus never really doubted Apple prices.
They should remove them the minute they sell out (usually a few weeks after launching new bands). Baffles me why they make such limited stock then just let them sit on the web constantly saying SOLD OUT for months at a time.
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There is no unsold supply, the majority of the bands sell out very quickly after being released. For a company that has mastered the supply chain its clear this is on purpose to hype demand. Many popular watch bands sit there for months with a SOLD OUT under them. No one at Apple can answer why they make such a limited supply. I refuse to believe they don't know what colors will be popular and actually make enough for roughly the 3 month duration they'll be around. Instead like clockwork new bands sell out in a couple weeks. Seems silly they're leaving loads of cash on the table. But they sure have an ample supply of $9 dongles!!
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The Apple store near me has been sold out of the seasonal cases and bands for some time now.
While shopping for bands the on line store displayed a ton of red Xs for nearly all the bands.
Not sure if there is a lot of inventory to handle
I have 17 myself. Change it every day. I love the bands. Even if the watch was round I hope they find a way to make it compatible with existing bands.
Standard Cook-era Apple would be to slightly change the hooking mechanism to make pre-Watch 4 bands incompatible. Then dry up supply of the older bands so there comes a time when users are forced to upgrade the whole watch when the band degrades to an unacceptable point. Nickel and dime, nickel and dime.
I do actually like my Apple Watch but absolutely can see the above happening and turning me off upgrading. I don’t want to be upgrading my watch every three years. I’ll stick to my $10 Casio with 15 year battery life if that happens.
I do actually like my Apple Watch but absolutely can see the above happening and turning me off upgrading. I don’t want to be upgrading my watch every three years. I’ll stick to my $10 Casio with 15 year battery life if that happens.
I would say your Bolded claim is inherently false, especially Since you don’t have a source to back up your assertion and based on the latest Apple Watch Series 4 leak. The reality is, the band port is a very important part of the Apple Watch as it currently stands, and Apple executed it perfectly, they know that and there is a monopoly for the band market as it stands.
Yes like they have to stop everything to make watch bands. It's exciting to have new options to refresh the look of your Apple Watch. It doesn't always have to be a necessity.
Indeed, Apple has some resident designers who very much like mechanical watches and the whole field of horology, and they've had considerable experience with designing mechanical interfaces for the real world (firewire, lightning, magsafe), and seeing how they fared when millions were using those connectors, and they had a clean sheet of paper and could build anything they wanted. They put a large amount of thought into the current connector, and designed it to last. It'll be another five years at least before they change the watch band connector.
Woohooo Sold my Watch S3 Nike+ yesterday. I can wait 2 months before upgrading
How much did you get for it? And did you include the sport loop?
It wasn't exactly a clean sheet of paper approach, they took some of Marc Newson's earlier Ikepod strap designs and refined the connector to make it simple to fit and remove. It's an absolutely brilliant design.
http://www.minimallyminimal.com/blog/ikepod-megapode-date-mgd05
Didn’t have the sport loop. Sold it for $320CAN minor tiny hairline scratch on the corner too. AppleCare+ with no returns everything incl. fair deal for both myself and the buyer who is a programmer for all the Canadian bank apps.
I’ll be reaching out o him soon to ask for help and tips on coding.
Interesting, I hadn't seen that before. Thanks. FWIW, what I meant was they weren't under any requirement to interact with existing standards - if you're designing an AC power plug, say, there's a variety of ways to approach it, but it still has to have the right number of prongs, in the specified orientation, carrying the specific signals/voltages. With the Apple Watch band and connector, their only requirement was that it had to attach the watch to your wrist. So they did have a clean sheet of paper, they set an existing design they liked on it, and then modified it to their taste.
The photography on that page - it's very artistic, but kind of awful for actually seeing and understanding the watch and it's strap.)