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iWatch to Come in Two Sizes With 'Fashionable Appearance', Top End to Cost 'Several Thousand' Dollars
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While I don't believe that Apple would be trying to sell a model that costs "thousands of dollars", I _am_ sure that such a model wouldn't be a "junk digital watch mass manufactured by China".
Maybe it wouldn't be "junk" (only by comparison to the established Swiss and Japanese watchmakers), but it certainly would be a "digital watch mass manufactured in China".
Yes way, there are countless people (mostly men) carrying a watch the price of a small car. And some like to spend thousands on a small wedding ring.
Though neither the armani watch or the wedding ring is obsolete within two years
I don't think that Apple is going to target the 1%ers. MAYBE there will be some high end, blinged out version. But I doubt it. Just doesn't seem like Apple would do this on their 1st ever wearable device. The market is just too premature, unproven, and littered with failed attempts.
First of all, if anyone has noticed, Apple has shifted focus. Apple is selling to the mass market - no more select markets.
They revised their Pro software to be more user friendly and affordable. They give the OS away for free. Their Server OS is equivalent to a meal at Olive Garden. They ditched the Xserve. The Mac Pro no longer looks like a desktop class workstation. It was refined to be smaller, still powerful, and target the higher end of the mass market still. No where is it an 'enterprise' item. Apple TV was reduced to 99 with the HD removed to use their cloud service, reduce cost, and make it available to more users. iCloud is a free service unlike .Mac and Mobile Me. All their MacBook lineup had price drops several years ago of $100-$200 to make them more affordable and inline with the market.
If you can't see this trend, then you are clearly blind!
No way will Apple sell an iWatch for more than $399 as an entry level device. Maybe the high end will be $599 but that's about it. Personally, I think it may start lower than that. I'm thinking more like $199. I doubt it'll incorporate fitness stuff into the watch - except for a HRM. The iPhone is the tool to measure your tracking with GPS, HealthBook app, etc. The watch is simply a tool that works with your phone to display notifications, time, and maybe interact with Siri. There's not much cost involved in accomplishing this. It'll also give much longer battery life by doing this. 5-7 days, maybe even 10 knowing Apple.
Even the iPhones are around $800 but Apple looks at it as $199, 299, 399 with the carrier subsidies. No one is going to subsidize a watch.
They revised their Pro software to be more user friendly and affordable. They give the OS away for free. Their Server OS is equivalent to a meal at Olive Garden. They ditched the Xserve. The Mac Pro no longer looks like a desktop class workstation. It was refined to be smaller, still powerful, and target the higher end of the mass market still. No where is it an 'enterprise' item. Apple TV was reduced to 99 with the HD removed to use their cloud service, reduce cost, and make it available to more users. iCloud is a free service unlike .Mac and Mobile Me. All their MacBook lineup had price drops several years ago of $100-$200 to make them more affordable and inline with the market.
If you can't see this trend, then you are clearly blind!
No way will Apple sell an iWatch for more than $399 as an entry level device. Maybe the high end will be $599 but that's about it. Personally, I think it may start lower than that. I'm thinking more like $199. I doubt it'll incorporate fitness stuff into the watch - except for a HRM. The iPhone is the tool to measure your tracking with GPS, HealthBook app, etc. The watch is simply a tool that works with your phone to display notifications, time, and maybe interact with Siri. There's not much cost involved in accomplishing this. It'll also give much longer battery life by doing this. 5-7 days, maybe even 10 knowing Apple.
Even the iPhones are around $800 but Apple looks at it as $199, 299, 399 with the carrier subsidies. No one is going to subsidize a watch.
While I don't immediately discount the plan to go after the high end of the market (and lets be clear, the high end of the watch market starts at $1,000 at least), I don't know about doing this for an electronic product that will become outdated very quickly.
While $2,000 may seem like a lot, remember that just in the US the "1%" is still 3 million people. In China the 0.1% (which is comparably rich to our 1%) is 1.6 million. There are many many rich people in this world and many of them have more money than they know what to do with.
I have friends for whom this would be a nearly meaningless expenditure. Of course those guys are already wearing Rolex and other watches costs over $10,000. So their wrists are already nicely occupied.
But I think it would be hard to buy something at that price point with the feeling that it wasn't going to last or that next year's model was going to be much better.
While $2,000 may seem like a lot, remember that just in the US the "1%" is still 3 million people. In China the 0.1% (which is comparably rich to our 1%) is 1.6 million. There are many many rich people in this world and many of them have more money than they know what to do with.
I have friends for whom this would be a nearly meaningless expenditure. Of course those guys are already wearing Rolex and other watches costs over $10,000. So their wrists are already nicely occupied.
But I think it would be hard to buy something at that price point with the feeling that it wasn't going to last or that next year's model was going to be much better.
I'm guessing that your ideas of what it potentially will do explains why you are on this forum and not working in Cupertino.
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My guess is that the lowest priced iWatch will be mostly plastic with a rubber wrist band, and that the highest priced will be all metal, with a fashionable metal band for those who want something along the lines of a fine piece of jewelry. I actually collect watches, and have some that are from the 20's and 30's, to newer ones costing several thousand dollars. While I will consider fine watches in the higher range, I don't think I would invest in an iWatch at that level because it will be outdated in a few years, especially with software update limitations. Most buyers of the iWatch will be in the lower to mid range market.
It's a smart watch. It's going to presumably monitor health related stuff and it might have a small touch screen. Why would I want to use the apps I can use on my iPhone on a small screen on my wrist. Also, it's realistically going to need to be paired to your phone so what's the point if I'm going to always have my iPhone on me anyway. It's also probably going to show you notifications but again, why would I want my wrist going off with notifications all the time? None of this is revolutionary besides the form factor, and that does not make it worth more than an iPhone.
Four easy steps to being an Apple analyst:
1) Browse some tech blogs to see what other companies are doing.
2) Mash them together in a way that sounds crazy enough to put Apple's name on it.
3) Epic fail at product launch.
4) Rinse & repeat.
It's guys like this that suck all the fun out of MacRumors. Ming walked into an I'M Watch store and regurgitated what he saw into his Apple predictions, with a little Samsung for added flavor. Can we get any more un-original?
This is a smart observation..
I think this could be a factor that could make selling this watch a bit easy.. If, like onstar, it could directly be connected so some high priced hospital which would be continuously getting info from the watch with the whereabouts so that in case there is an emergency the help is available without the person doing anything..I am not putting it properly but I hope people can understand what I am trying to say..
That could have buyers..I do not think Apple is stupid to make a watch costing several thousands without any unique benefits.. If it just style, then there is no reason why somebody has to buy iWatch instead of an expensive mechanical watch - like a Rolex..
Just my opinion..
I think this could be a factor that could make selling this watch a bit easy.. If, like onstar, it could directly be connected so some high priced hospital which would be continuously getting info from the watch with the whereabouts so that in case there is an emergency the help is available without the person doing anything..I am not putting it properly but I hope people can understand what I am trying to say..
That could have buyers..I do not think Apple is stupid to make a watch costing several thousands without any unique benefits.. If it just style, then there is no reason why somebody has to buy iWatch instead of an expensive mechanical watch - like a Rolex..
Just my opinion..
It was just a rendered image I had laying around.
That wasn't one of I'm Watch's actual gold / titanium / pink gold / etc models.
But yeah, they shouldn't have put their name on the band. Woof.
On the good side, the I'm Watch was the first to have a curved capacitive screen. Too bad its software has mediocre reviews.
I guess your not going to get one then, they will start over $100, at least, more like $200-$300
Everyone says they want Apple to invent a new product category. Now everyone complains about a potential price. You can't have it both ways!
How do we know that the high-end iWatch isn't Swiss made with 24k gold? Even though I wouldn't purchase that version, it could potentially exist.
How do we know that the high-end iWatch isn't Swiss made with 24k gold? Even though I wouldn't purchase that version, it could potentially exist.
That's sort of what I was thinking
Sort of like the MP3 market in 2000? I'm just playing devil's advocate, but Apple usually comes into the game at an angle nobody had really considered before. I'm not going to put it past Apple to do something like this. I highly doubt they will, but if anyone were to do something like this, who would it be?
Exactly. "It could potentially exist". We just don't know until there's a special event in Cupertino.
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