This doesn't match the reality. Most people I see across the streets aren't using any watch.
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Apple Watch Makes First Australian Magazine Appearance Inside 'Elle'
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This doesn't match the reality. Most people I see across the streets aren't using any watch.
How the hell do you make that determination from across a street? I assume a fair amount have long sleeves on, then you have others wearing on the wrist being blocked by their body or by other bodies and objects in your field or view, and then you have to be able to discern medical alert devices and jewelry that's also worn on the wrist.
How does one casually get this info? Or, if you are actively doing research why stand on the other side of the street.
Regardless, what's happening right now is not an indicator of what will happen when there is a paradigm shift in technology. Consider that very few people saw the need for the personal computer before Apple existed. There is even a famous story of Woz having to pitch his machine to HP, where he worked, to see if they wanted first dibs at his creation. Obviously they didn't and now Apple is building their new campus on their HQ remains.
The PMP market was pretty much nonexistent when Apple entered into it. It had struggled for years but I believe the Sony Discman was still outselling all HDD-based PMP vendors combined. The iPod changed that.
Then you have very few smartphone sales compared to dumb phones; mostly being business executives with Blackberries and geeks with PDAs. The iPhone changed that. And that was despite not having '3G', a physical keyboard, cut/copy/paste, and slew of other must have features that many said doomed the product from the start.
Then you have the iPad jumping into a market where tablets had failed for decades. The iPad changed that. And yet the biggest gripes where how it's just a large iPod Touch, and how no one would use that Mickey Mouse OS when there were real computers for real work available that were faster, with larger HDDs, faster processors, more RAM, and physical keyboards for less money.
I believe that the wearables market is the next major CE market, and while I don't think the look of the first gen Watch is to my liking I can see the fine craftsmanship and believe it's aa good value for the money. Also, while it's missing some key features I think are obvious, simple for Apple to code, and would make this a must have, I see the potential and how it can be a great utility for its owners.
It's being marketed as *both*. You're looking at a fashion magazine and complaining that they are focusing on fashion. Look at the spread they did for the fitness magazine.
Okay then.
I don't care if you are CEO of a major car company, this information is just completely wrong. It's as wrong as claiming all laptops are the same, or all smart phones are the same.
The example I gave you on the S-Class active air suspension that looks at the road ahead and anticipates bumps is not a technology you could just slap onto a Ford or any other car.
In fact Mercedes has for many years now pioneered technology in their higher end vehicles that later end up on more mainstream brands.
While we're on the subject Mercedes invented the first car, held the first auto race, made the first honeycomb radiator, the first multi valve engine, the first super charged engine (in 1921), the first four wheel independent suspension, the first crumple zones back in 1959.
They have put innovations into their vehicles that other manufacturers simply didn't have.
So to write it off as a branding thing is just factually incorrect.
And how do I know? I've owned 15 cars since I learned to drive, and for my job I usually end up driving at least 3-4 rental cars each month. Plus I research. So I'd say I have quite a lot of first hand and second hand experience with cars. It is absolutely ridiculous to try and make the claim that cars are all the same and you're just paying for a badge.
Nothing wrong with Hyundai. My wife just got one in fact, and we drove every car in its class, and it was the best value proposition in her price range.
That said, an Equus is not going to hold a candle the the Benz. As Edmunds put it, as they gave it a B grade, "Interior quality and driving experience don't equal those of more elite luxury sedans; disappointing braking distances; all-wheel drive is not offered."
Edmunds gave the S-Class an A grade stating, "Unparalleled blend of luxury and technology; incredible ride comfort; effortless acceleration; endless safety and entertainment features; opulent cabin."
Or are you claiming that a car review company was just seduced by the badge and are too stupid to know better?
I'm not really going to address your misogynist opinion that women 'don't like tech stuff.' I'll accept that they may approach technology differently to men as a very sweeping generalization. Time will tell if women like the Apple Watch, but I don't think your view of the percentage of women that use bluetooth headsets is going to have any bearing on that.
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Yes, but I don't expect to see an Apple Edition there any time soon.
It's made in china ffs, it's not premium. A nice swiss, hand made by quality qualified watch maker s premium. Not a mass produced item from china made of every day materials.
Apple does not = premium
I disagree with that guys statement but man that Rolex is gaudy as all hell.
Kitsch sprang to mind the minute I saw it.
I don't really agree. Those who are really into fashion wear outfits once, maybe a few times. You think women who drop $1000 or more on Christian Louboutin shoes, are going to wear them for years? How about that nice Mulberry shoulder bag that costs $1500. You think they'll be using the same one in a couple of years?
Ever seen the closet of a celebrity? They have shelves of shoes, dresses and bags that they have used once or perhaps not even at all.
In any case, I really think what Apple is doing here is quite clever. By making and marketing a $10K-$17K version of their watch which is unobtainable for most, they are changing the perception of the item from a cheap smart watch, the likes of which have never really been that desirable, and they are creating a different vibe about their product.
As was also previously discussed, their brand perception also differs in different markets, in China for example Apple has a much more luxury brand image, and gold items are prized a lot more than here in the US.
I've said it before, I think Apple did their homework on this one, and the nay sayers will be proved wrong. Feel free to swing by and laugh at me in a year if I was wrong.
Now instead of people going to the toilet to snort Cocaine, they'll be going in there to charge up their watch.
No way 1.2B watches (1/5 of the world) are sold yearly. It's like every child, every adult and every granma accumulate 2 watches every decade. I should have had at least six. I probably have matched these statistics when I was a child in the 80s. After 1990, I probably had just one.
Watch is jewelry. No way one will need another device to measure the time - and other stuff, but only if I have an iPhone.
You have to kind of get away from the subtle racism that implies that if something is made in China that it is garbage.
The iPhone 6 is one of the best made phones in the world, with an astonishingly high consumer satisfaction rating. I'd argue that no country on the planet could have produced that many phones, to those tolerances, in the time frame that China did.
So you can't really compare a cheap plastic kiddy toy made in China to all products made in China.
And since when is anyone comparing a $349 Apple Watch to a fine hand made Swiss timepiece? Care to tell me where I could buy a hand made fine Swiss timepiece for $349? Or even $2490? You are unfairly comparing two things that simply don't compare.
Every time I hear someone say that "nobody" wears watches anymore, I look around and see the same ratio virtually every time: 80% don't wear watches, 20% do. Last weekend I was at the Glendale Galleria, and I passed by four watch stores: one Rolex, one Swatch (which had been there for almost 20 years), and two whose names I can't remember. These stores have monthly leases to pay, so they're at least breaking even, but I don't think one mall would have four watch stores (never mind the mall's department stores with watch sections) if the market weren't comfortably profitable.
20% of people on the street might not seem like much, but consider here's an experiment: go out and see how many people are wearing watches, then see how many are wearing white earbuds. That should put things in perspective.
I'm sorry, but that watch looks so out of place in that photo, it's embarassing.
A sexy model and $20K worth of designer clothes can't elevate a wrist-mounted iPod Nano to haute couture.
A sexy model and $20K worth of designer clothes can't elevate a wrist-mounted iPod Nano to haute couture.
This is the Way to Sell It.
Wow! 
is going to sell -tons- of these watches. The fashion magazines are going to be the factor: Once it has been "decided" that Apple's watch is fashionable, it will be very, very successful. That's what happened with the iPhone and the iPad.
The fashion trades are very, very powerful. Never underestimate the power of extreme beauty and allure (no pun intended) in the marketing of a product.
This is the way to sell it, and it will be used as an example in business school textbooks in the near future.
Wow! is going to sell -tons- of these watches. The fashion magazines are going to be the factor: Once it has been "decided" that Apple's watch is fashionable, it will be very, very successful. That's what happened with the iPhone and the iPad.The fashion trades are very, very powerful. Never underestimate the power of extreme beauty and allure (no pun intended) in the marketing of a product.
This is the way to sell it, and it will be used as an example in business school textbooks in the near future.
Yes, but watches are not primarily for timekeeping anymore. They are statement pieces - items chosen for an image that the owner wants to project, or simply because the owner finds them aesthetically pleasing. That's why there are thousands of watches in a dizzying array of styles - everyone has different tastes. So, the idea of an electronic device worn on the wrist just doesn't make sense. It presupposes that we WANT to "do things" with our watches, when, in fact, they are merely fashion accessories. And on that front (fashion), the Apple Watch fails. It's just ugly.
The big picture within the smartwatch sector will prove that Apple Watch will be a very good seller, I'm very confident of that.
Yet before jumping to conclusions I'd encourage the doubters to re-read my carefully worded prediction.
Next... In the event that Apple Watch sales aren't better than other brands, that's no problem.
Apple absolutely will do whatever's required to position the Apple Watch as a success. With nearly endless amounts of money Apple will force success upon the Apple Watch. You'll see
Yet before jumping to conclusions I'd encourage the doubters to re-read my carefully worded prediction.
Next... In the event that Apple Watch sales aren't better than other brands, that's no problem.
Apple absolutely will do whatever's required to position the Apple Watch as a success. With nearly endless amounts of money Apple will force success upon the Apple Watch. You'll see
The "projecting an image" trope is a cliché that's frequently repeated, but watches are just as often worn for pragmatic reasons, includingyestimekeeping. I've been using smartphones since 2001, but never stopped wearing watches. It's just faster and more convenient to turn my wrist than dig my phone out, especially when sitting down.
Very few of the 20% of people on the street I see wearing watches are wearing anything noteworthy, or even aesthetically pleasing. They're often just nondescript digital or quartz watches picked up at Walgreens for $30.
I wouldn't presume to argue with the royal "we".
The big picture within the smartwatch sector will prove that Apple Watch will be a very good seller, I'm very confident of that.
Yet before jumping to conclusions I'd encourage the doubters to re-read my carefully worded prediction.
Next... In the event that Apple Watch sales aren't better than other brands, that's no problem.
Apple absolutely will do whatever's required to position the Apple Watch as a success. With nearly endless amounts of money Apple will force success upon the Apple Watch. You'll see
They have already started with the ads, TV spots, and it's been going on for a while before it hit TV. Now they are getting plenty of exposure with Good Morning American and more will be coming at launch time. They are going all out to convince people that they need one. And at least here, it's working.
