Apple Targeting March for Apple Watch Launch, Retail Training Begins Next Month

[gspet01]

Many people question why anyone would want an Apple Watch. Here's why I want one:

I have a large lawn and it takes me a number of hours to mow. It's a job I find relaxing primarily because I can listen to music off my phone the whole time, using bluetooth headphones. While mowing I get phone calls, texts, and emails. Each dings in my headphones. Some calls matter, some don't. Most text matter and the occasional email matters. The phone is tucked away where it can't fall out or get exposed to lawn shrapnel. Right now I check every ding because I have no way of knowing if it's important or not. That means digging the phone out from an inside pocket (after stopping the mower), and deciding if I need to reply. I am very much looking forward to being able to glance at my watch and discover immediately whether or not the call/message is important.

I ride snowmobile, often for multiple hours. I ride with bluetooth headphones and listen to music. The phone is buried under heavy clothes. Repeat the above reasoning.

I want an Apple Watch.

 

[Keirasplace]

A good rule of thumb is to not be blown away by pictures, one way or another, and not especially of technology products. You won't know if a tech product is beautiful or ugly until you actually use it.

The people that have actually handled it said it looked good and had a much better build than all other smart watch. Even photos taken by amateurs in displays (taken in Paris) makes the watch look good. If you want to question photo and reality, question the Moto360 press photos compared to how it really looks... Even worse for the Samsung watch.

 

[dannyyankou]

My birthday is March 15th. That would make a great gift if anyone is feeling generous enough

ps: stainless steel link bracelet please

 

[rowspaxe]

why does anyone even want one of these? the only way i'd take one is if i won one for free. The price is absurd for a device with less functionality than a phone, crap battery life, and a chunky boring design.

I keep seeing this as a complete fail. I mean there will be a small enthusiast market--but overall i see the wearable tech thing just dying from indifference and mystification

 

[Keirasplace]

Let's wait until someone at Apple says that for 100% certain that story here about ads on the watch will never happen. Who wants a $400 watch that today is ad free but next month starts tells you to buy Pepsi or something.

I'd need a guarantee that ads will never happen on the watch.

Normal ads may not happen, but instant rebates/coupons (that you opt in for) could very well happen. Say there is a restaurant in the neighborhood that's not running at capacity at 6pm that night, maybe it could offer a rebate just then that shows up to everyone in the vicinity that opted in.

With Ibeacons, rebates of the type you want to know about could show up on your watch (if you activate the function) when you pass by the aisle, the store.

That's how I see this being used instead of general adds that just shows up.

Though, I'm sure someone, not Apple, will sell a watch with ads for next to nothing if you accept ads on it without ability to turn them off; maybe Google.

 

[iSee]

Let's wait until someone at Apple says that for 100% certain that story here about ads on the watch will never happen. Who wants a $400 watch that today is ad free but next month starts tells you to buy Pepsi or something.

I'd need a guarantee that ads will never happen on the watch.

I think you can expect exactly what the iPhone, iPad (and Macs) give you: Apple won't ship it with any adware, but ad-supported third-party apps will be allowed. So: no ads by default, but you can opt in.

Oh, and anyone currently spamming you with emails, text messages or notifications will be able to continue doing so, though some might start optimizing for watches if they really catch on.

 

[troy14]

Many people question why anyone would want an Apple Watch. Here's why I want one:

I have a large lawn and it takes me a number of hours to mow. It's a job I find relaxing primarily because I can listen to music off my phone the whole time, using bluetooth headphones. While mowing I get phone calls, texts, and emails. Each dings in my headphones. Some calls matter, some don't. Most text matter and the occasional email matters. The phone is tucked away where it can't fall out or get exposed to lawn shrapnel. Right now I check every ding because I have no way of knowing if it's important or not. That means digging the phone out from an inside pocket (after stopping the mower), and deciding if I need to reply. I am very much looking forward to being able to glance at my watch and discover immediately whether or not the call/message is important.

I ride snowmobile, often for multiple hours. I ride with bluetooth headphones and listen to music. The phone is buried under heavy clothes. Repeat the above reasoning.

I want an Apple Watch.

You could get all of that with a Pebble. In fact, I use it for similar uses.... It's also waterproof and lasts for days.

 

[k3ith]

And here come the Chinese knockoffs. H/T Benedict Evans @ CES

Where did you find this???

 

[WilliamG]

Damnit. I want this yesterday.

I want this the day before yesterday.

 

[JPIndustrie]

You could get all of that with a Pebble. In fact, I use it for similar uses.... It's also waterproof and lasts for days.

Pebble's days are numbered. WatchKit API will open the door to new applications further than any ecosystem they have.

 

[dav1dd]

Apple pre-announced the original iPhone 6 months in advance, and the original iPad about 3 months in advance. This device needs to get FCC approval (since it has wireless functions) and so would have leaked sooner or later. Apple probably wanted to get the sneak preview out of the way so that they could get developers interested and gauge demand in advance.

Fair enough

 

[nyctravis]

Many people question why anyone would want an Apple Watch. Here's why I want one:

...While mowing I get phone calls, texts, and emails. Each dings in my headphones. Some calls matter, some don't. Most text matter and the occasional email matters. The phone is tucked away where it can't fall out or get exposed to lawn shrapnel. Right now I check every ding because I have no way of knowing if it's important or not...

I want an Apple Watch.

This. I was skiing the other day with my iPhone tucked deeply away and I kept feeling it vibrate while I was on the lifts, etc. I would have loved to have just glanced at my watch to see if it was something important that needed attention right away.

 

[Rogifan]

Where did you find this???

Benedict Evans tweeted it from CES.

 

[Oridus]

You could get all of that with a Pebble. In fact, I use it for similar uses.... It's also waterproof and lasts for days.

Yay for a monochromatic screen with limited functionality. Let's try this, we will spend our $$ that we work hard for on an Apple Watch, and you can stop suggesting we get a product a lot of us obviously don't want because if we did we would already have it.

 

[MacBH928]

What do they teach them in retail training?

 

[twigman08]

I keep seeing this argument in the scope of comparing Apple's product to common wristwatches that have far less functionality. The reality is that very few, if any, of the current crop of wearables are fully waterproof.

I suspect that in time this will be remedied, but I don't think it is realistic to expect for a first generation product from any company.

I think the issue a lot of people have with that it is not water proof is that Apple has already marketed the sport version to be for athletes/fitness people. Kept talking at the Keynote how this is so great for fitness people and all that, yet showed off absolutely nothing that made it seem so great for fitness.

Their are actually quite a bit VERY good fitness watches available that do fitness pretty much better than Apple talked about at the keynote, are water proof, and don't require an iPhone to be with them.

My current fitness watch does my heart rate, is water proof (for my swim workouts), tracks my runs, tracks my bike rides, and more all without needing a phone to be on a workout with me. I just feel if Apple really wants to market a sports version for fitness (they spent quite a while on that in the keynote) then it should had pretty much worked like that. I really feel like they have missed what a sport watch actually should do. Sure it does more than just that, which is fine, but my point is that Apple as pretty much already stated they are marketing one version to be pretty much a fitness watch, and it is behind the current crop of fitness watches, IMO.

Of course all this could change if when it gets closer to release they show us something or announce something some things that we do not know yet.

 

[MrXiro]

In what way did the iPad 1 'lack bluetooth'?
A big feature was being able to connect it to Bluetooth keyboards/speakers.
Agree with you about the ram though, could have done with 512mb instead of 256mb

I sold mine at the end of 2011 but I guess if it had bt my memory is off. Needless to say the iPad 2 has been supported longer and not by one year.

 

[ihatephish]

Actually if the first gen were waterproof it'd be a BUY for me rather than a... "I'll wait for reviews and maybe even the 2nd gen".

Based on my experience with Apple their first gen products are always crippled in some way and then their 2nd Gen fixes what should have been fixed to begin with. ie iPhone 1 was only EDGE when 3G was already readily available for years. iPod Touch 1 didn't have volume buttons, iPad 1 lacked bluetooth and sufficient RAM.

Prime example being the iPad... it stopped supporting it at iOS5, but the iPad 2 is STILL being supported today at iOS8.

Watch 1 will be like a beta tester's device and 2nd gen will have it down like usual... I still want one though.

So then you give your "old" device to your wife when you get the new one. You should think this out more.

 

[MrXiro]

Iphone 1 was dramatically better than any smartphone on the market. You were crippled if you didn't have it. By that I mean, that folks with iPhone 1 could access the internet from their pocket in a way that no one else could. It gave them almost super powers.

iPod 1 was amazing. I still have one that works.

iPad 1. Sister has inherited it. Still works like a beast. Given to the nephew from time to time. Good enough for the kids to use. Hasn't broken. Not nearly crippled.

I've owned every single one of those devices. Yes the iPhone was the best smartphone for the time but not having 3G at the time was also crippling it. Hence the iPhone 3G.

The iPod touch 1 I used for 3 generations. Was it a good device? Yes... was the 2nd gen a significant jump? Yes. Volume buttons alone made it a significant jump.

You severly missed my point that it is a crippled product compared to the next gen and I don't mean "newer features" but rather things that should have been there in the first place.

The watch is missing water proofing and gps. The next gen should have these features. But this first gen is crippled because these features already exist and shouldn't be missing in the first place. They've done it every time. Even with the first Mac Book Air.

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So then you give your "old" device to your wife when you get the new one. You should think this out more.

My wife wants nothing to do with wearables. I offered my pebble to her she told me to sell it on Craigslist.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

What do they teach them in retail training?

The capabilities of the device. What you can/cannot do with it. Most (I'd say, about 98%) of customers are not Macrumors regulars, so knowing the ins and outs of the watch technology are somewhat new to them, and being sold on it by the staff helps greatly.

A case in point is when I go to Walmart/Walgreens/Albertsons, and the store employees can tell me where an item is, but an Apple/Microsoft/Bath and Body Works employee can tell me how my life will be better by using their product.

That's my opinion on why the training matters.

 

[lombax54]

The iwatch does not have that much demand.

Too true. Probably because there's no such thing as an iWatch. The Watch, on the other hand, has plenty of demand.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

I keep seeing this as a complete fail. I mean there will be a small enthusiast market--but overall i see the wearable tech thing just dying from indifference and mystification

I see first generation as limited to the enthusiast, 2nd generation to a wider audience, with enhanced features, and 3rd generation to really be a necessary item.

It seems to be the way of things.

 

[Bengy66]

Give the man a medal!

Or melt down the gold medal for a new Apple Watch will work.

 

[JAT]

I know at least one person that has to have one. My teenage daughter. She's mad because I emphatically told her no. 2nd gen maybe, but definitely not 1st gen. I am a horrible parent because I won't allow her to use Apple Pay (she has no job and wants to use one of my credit cards. Too damn funny) and I won't buy her a Gen 1 watch. 1st world, amirite?

While I agree with your parenting in this post, I disagree with the facetious "1st world". In fact, if she has any 3rd world problems, then maybe your parenting isn't so hot. Hopefully that isn't the case.

 

[valleian]

I'll be watching the clock until it's released.

...

I see what you did there…

Now if you excuse me, I'm busy deciding on my complications. I've got a lot of preping to do.