Jony Ive Reveals Exclusive Apple Watch Sport Bands at Milan Design Week

[Michael Scrip]

So this begs the question: why do bother coming to MacRumors. You clearly have no need for Macs since they are massively inferior for your purposes. You must know that what you suggest will NEVER be Apple's business model. You have absolutely no reason to have interest in this forum.

You know this forum deals with more than just Macs... right? This particular article is about the Apple Watch... for instance.

Honestly... I feel like this website should have changed its name a while ago. But oh well.

I don't use a Mac either... but I use plenty of other Apple products. That's why I come here. And I'm probably not alone in that regard.

 

[seatton]

Why can't they just release those as additional colors so that we can buy them? I guess I will be waiting for a third-party red sport band for 5.99 on Amazon then!

 

[69650]

People are getting excited about plastic watch bands in new colours? The world's gone mad.

----------

Oh yes, I can go out tomorrow and buy the top of the line iMac if I wanted, but I'd sit there, knowing what a rotten graphics card it had inside it, and I'd be unhappy with my purchase.

My current PC has three SSD's inside it, that I use specifically for individual reasons, so I want the ability to have that in my iMac also.

I may wish to have my own sound card as even on high end PC's built in sound is not as good as a dedicated card.

I may wish, and I'm thinking of a ultra widescreen monitor, but again the iMac will fail me on that.

I could look at a Mac Pro, but then that's got a CPU I don't want, and graphics cards that are unsuitable for much other than Video editing.

As I said, where is the Mac for me and others like me?

Apple won't make it, as they know if they do, they will lose sales from iMacs and Mac Pro's as they will instantly make something people would want to buy instead.

Putting all things aside, Apples weak graphics for years upon years is the biggest thing that's stopped me buying one.

The reason they won't do it is because they couldn't make a 35% profit margin if they filled their devices with the best components. Many people buy a Mac because of how it looks rather what it can do.

 

[Four oF NINE]

Oh yes, I can go out tomorrow and buy the top of the line iMac if I wanted, but I'd sit there, knowing what a rotten graphics card it had inside it, and I'd be unhappy with my purchase.

My current PC has three SSD's inside it, that I use specifically for individual reasons, so I want the ability to have that in my iMac also.

I may wish to have my own sound card as even on high end PC's built in sound is not as good as a dedicated card.

I may wish, and I'm thinking of a ultra widescreen monitor, but again the iMac will fail me on that.

I could look at a Mac Pro, but then that's got a CPU I don't want, and graphics cards that are unsuitable for much other than Video editing.

As I said, where is the Mac for me and others like me?

Apple won't make it, as they know if they do, they will lose sales from iMacs and Mac Pro's as they will instantly make something people would want to buy instead.

Putting all things aside, Apples weak graphics for years upon years is the biggest thing that's stopped me buying one.

Sounds like you're simply not an Apple person. Apple isn't for everyone, but then, they don't try to be.

 

[solarguy17]

But he's sad because the Apple we once knew, is running away from that market segment. You know, the one it occupied for almost 3 DECADES!. They always managed to offer a level of upgradability and value to their pc's and other products, and with awesome build quality.
I just got a 2012 non-retina macbook pro off Apple's refurb store, fitted it with TWO 1TB SSDs, and 16 gigs of ram I added myself, for $900 total. $2000 total for a machine that's almost as fast as the current offering, with the same amount of ram and twice the SSD space, and it was more than $1000 less than buying the top end retina macbook pro.
And yes, I would have bought that same form factor Apple laptop with a retina display in a heartbeat, but always these days, with Apple, when they give they taketh away. And I do think that's sad.

Hold on a sec, affordability? Before I started buying Apple products I was always told that Apple computers were more expensive then the corresponding Windows based computers. I remember looking at an iMac that was $1200 that had way worse specs then my $800 Windows 98 machine that i had.
I have never heard (even today) people talk about how Apple products are affordable.

I don't know about upgradeable, but for the last several years, pretty much since iPhone at the latest, their philosophy has been, "it just works". Could you give their products minor upgrades, IE ram, HDD, yes, but it wasn't supposed to be needed. I personally have never upgraded my MacBooks, because it wasn't needed. My plastic Macbook was 3.5 yrs old when i replaced it and other then battery going bad, it still ran fine. Not great but fine. And I replaced it due to battery going bad and the charging port shorting out (hit by a power surge).

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Why can't they just release those as additional colors so that we can buy them? I guess I will be waiting for a third-party red sport band for 5.99 on Amazon then!

I agree, I think only releasing the 5 colors they did may have been a mistake. Offering up a bunch of colors would be better and I hope they offer more eventually to the mass market. I personally would like a dark brown band, I wear brown shoes and belt to work everyday, the band would be great to match that.

I might also consider order band to match some of my shirt colors, red, orange, yellow, dark blue, dark green, etc.

Actually come to think of it.

APPLE DONT RELEASE ANY MORE COLORS!!!!!
I will end up spending more on bands then I did on the Watch itself

 

[ZCT]

Overpriced plastic bands. Oooooo! In colors too! BFD!

We've already established that Apple aim at the premium market. They are not trying to be the next $300 plastic laptop or make a $99 tablet, or sell a $50 watch.

Their rubber bands cost $49. A rubber strap for my watch cost $375. Breitling rubber straps cost $295. Even a canvas strap for Bell & Ross costs $125.

Seems to me that Apple has priced their strap pretty fairly. Not even a fraction of the price of others.

Frankly though, if Apple sold them for $9.99 you'd find something else to whine about.

 

[OoOOOOOOoooOOOO]

i want a nice alligator strap like this blue coach band:

http://www.coach.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Coach_US-Site/default/Product-Variation?pid=W4007&dwvar_color=NAV&cgid=

 

[rtdunham]

I find power drills to be boring devices.

That augurs well for the future.

 

[jagolden]

Oh yes, I can go out tomorrow and buy the top of the line iMac if I wanted, but I'd sit there, knowing what a rotten graphics card it had inside it, and I'd be unhappy with my purchase.

My current PC has three SSD's inside it, that I use specifically for individual reasons, so I want the ability to have that in my iMac also.

I may wish to have my own sound card as even on high end PC's built in sound is not as good as a dedicated card.

I may wish, and I'm thinking of a ultra widescreen monitor, but again the iMac will fail me on that.

I could look at a Mac Pro, but then that's got a CPU I don't want, and graphics cards that are unsuitable for much other than Video editing.

As I said, where is the Mac for me and others like me?

Apple won't make it, as they know if they do, they will lose sales from iMacs and Mac Pro's as they will instantly make something people would want to buy instead.

Putting all things aside, Apples weak graphics for years upon years is the biggest thing that's stopped me buying one.

If it's not video editing you're trying to do, can you explain just what you need some super-duper video card for?

I'll take external over internal any day. SSD? Meh. People are in such a rush. I work for a living and read/write has never held me up.

If people would want to buy it so much, Apple would make it.

Since the PC world seems to fit you so much better, why do you want a Mac? I'd stay with what works for you. There's room for both. No harm, no fowl.

 

[houstonche]

I don't hate Apple.

I wanted an Apple II, but I ended up getting an Atari 800 instead

My only gripe, or thing that makes me sad is that Apple has left a groups of people and I will include myself in the group, out in the cold deliberately.

And they have done this, simply because they know if they did not, the products they WANTED to sell would not of sold so well.

What am I talking about?
A reasonably priced Desktop Mac Computer.

One that, just like a PC, you can upgrade with new graphics cards, more memory, SSD's upgrade just like a PC, till you decide you wish to get a new one and start again.

Instead they only wanted to offer, and still do a Laptop with a large screen on a stand. A mac mini that's restricted and an over priced Mac Pro. Priced at such a point where it would never threaten their MacPro or ever stand a chance of becoming popular.

This is not a mistake, it's deliberate. And that makes me sad.

Apple caters to millions of customers across the world. It does not cater to you or I. That would be a bad business model.

My suggestion is to do what you do in all other purchasing circumstances. If they don't have what you want, buy from someone who does. Don't make it personal, because it isn't.

 

[jagolden]

This is a beta. Reviews written by the biggest of Apple fanbois say it'll take 3 days for a tech-savvy person to really figure out the UI and device. 3 days? Wow! The original Mac OS didn't need 3 days to figure out, nor did iOS. My iPhone 3 was amazing because the OS was amazing. It was intuitive and made difficult things simple.

3 days is not a lot of time for a techie, but I'm willing to bet the average Joe or Josephina is going to get frustrated with the device.

That's only unjustified 'opinion'. I'm no longer 'techie' but know I'll be up and running where I want to be on the first day. Sure I won't know everything, but will be doing what I want.

And please, do not say you knew all there was to know about your iPhone on day one. Like me and the watch, I'm sure you were doing what you wanted, but knew everything...c'mon!

 

[Keirasplace]

The other thing you're ignoring is the fact that battery's degrade. Fast. Good luck scrambling for a charger mid-day after a year or two when the battery only holds 70% of the charge. Just ask any past iphone owner.

If you use up your phone fully (that's intense all day use, 100% to 5%) each day (and taking no factor like storing or using intensely in very high heat into account (that's bad for batteries)), your battery will last 400-500 full cycles (all best tech current lithium batteries will do that).

On average, people have about 25-40% left at the end of the day; at that level, batteries last 800-1200 cycles before they reach 70% of their initial charge. That"s 2-3 years for most people. Apple has set their watch's battery to reach that level as 3 years. So, they seemingly expect people to finish their days on average around 30-35%; off course, some will use it more, and less than that.

With lighter use (60-50% charge at end of day) a battery can last 2000-2500 cycles (the number of cycles is non-linear); that's 7 years.

Currently, replacing a phone battery can be done for $30 bucks around here (if you let someone do it); if you do it yourself, it is $15 bucks maximum. My 3GS got his battery replaced last January (5.7 years old) for that price. By that time, 5.7 years... Yes, the battery life sucked, as expected ;-).

Apple said the battery was replaceable; and like batteries for phones, it is highly probable that people will be able to get their battery replaced for $20-40 bucks from a third party after however how often they use watch (or phone). Apple will also do it off course, but may charge a bit more (just like they charge a bit more to change Iphone batteries).

 

[elgrecomac]

That's only unjustified 'opinion'. I'm no longer 'techie' but know I'll be up and running where I want to be on the first day. Sure I won't know everything, but will be doing what I want.

And please, do not say you knew all there was to know about your iPhone on day one. Like me and the watch, I'm sure you were doing what you wanted, but knew everything...c'mon!

Read

http://www.wired.com/2015//4-reasons-to-expect-a-slow-start-from-the-apple-watch/

 

[McCool71]

Apple's gotten people excited enough to pay £39 for a piece of plastic that probably costs £0.40 to manufacturer and about £0.001 to develop (amortised over the sales numbers). It's outrageous but you have to respect the brand loyalty they've built.

Don't worry, there will be a huge influx of third party pieces of plastic in lots of colors and designs at less than a third of the price very soon.

The sad thing is of course that a lot of Apple Watch owners will not dare to buy them because they are afraid of being bullied by the hardcore A-fans and looked at as poor.

I can already hear the crowd chanting in the back of my mind: "Only Apple makes high quality silicone in the right colors for these watches! Other colors are wrong and do not match! You are obviously so poor that you should buy a Samsung watch instead!"

 

[AdonisSMU]

Apple's gotten people excited enough to pay £39 for a piece of plastic that probably costs £0.40 to manufacturer and about £0.001 to develop (amortised over the sales numbers). It's outrageous but you have to respect the brand loyalty they've built.

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Oh...and this probably explains J.J. Abrams' blue band.

All it takes is seeing some rich person wear it and everyone now thinks "it's fashion".

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Oh yes, I can go out tomorrow and buy the top of the line iMac if I wanted, but I'd sit there, knowing what a rotten graphics card it had inside it, and I'd be unhappy with my purchase.

My current PC has three SSD's inside it, that I use specifically for individual reasons, so I want the ability to have that in my iMac also.

I may wish to have my own sound card as even on high end PC's built in sound is not as good as a dedicated card.

I may wish, and I'm thinking of a ultra widescreen monitor, but again the iMac will fail me on that.

I could look at a Mac Pro, but then that's got a CPU I don't want, and graphics cards that are unsuitable for much other than Video editing.

As I said, where is the Mac for me and others like me?

Apple won't make it, as they know if they do, they will lose sales from iMacs and Mac Pro's as they will instantly make something people would want to buy instead.

Putting all things aside, Apples weak graphics for years upon years is the biggest thing that's stopped me buying one.

Sounds like you are over invested in what apple is doing for someone who isn't an apple person. Why go through all that trouble of hating when you can simply get the products you want? You've already made it clear that Apple isn't for you. Move on with your life. There are other vendors for a reason.

 

[TallManNY]

No matter what has been said positive about the watch, the "haters gonna hate, hate, hate". I've been an Apple user since 1993 and have seen the pattern so many times.

In 1998 when the iMac came out it was the same thing. It was dissed as just a pretty computer that was limited and did nothing any other computer couldn't do. A flop. $1299! Crazy. There was nothing compelling you could say in 1998 about an iMac that would change the views of the haters. I'm glad to say I had a first gen iMac and loved it. The iMac changed how computers where viewed industrywide. Apple has sold millions and millions of iMacs, including to those who bashed them in the beginning.

In 2001 the iPod was BASHED for not having anything new or great. See thread 500. $399! Crazy. There was nothing compelling you could say in 2001 to change the view of the haters. I'm glad to say I enjoyed my first gen iPod, and all the ones after that until today. The iPod, needless to say, became one of the most influential tech products of our generation. Apple has sold millions and millions of iPods, including to those who bashed them at the beginning.

In 2007 the iPhone was said to be too expensive, people dissed the lack of a keyboard. Many said the iPhone did nothing their old phone and iPod could't do. They didn't want to get online with a tiny screen that didn't even do Flash. It wasn't Windows CE, it wasn't Palm. $599 out of pocket! No way! I'm glad to have been 3rd in line at ATT on release day for the iPhone back then, a 4s in 2011, and a 6 last year. Apple has sold a few iPhones since the first one and completely changed the industry.

In 2010 the iPad was also hated by the haters. Who needed that!? That's what a laptop is for. Thats what the iPhone is for said the naysayers who had previously said they wouldn't use the iPhone to surf the web. $499! Crazy. Netbooks are better and cheaper. My wife loved her 1st Gen iPad and we love our iPad Airs. There was nothing you could tell a detractor then that would have made it compelling. Apple has also sold a few of those. Netbooks are gone, and all manufactures make an iPad clone.

And here we are. 2015. The Apple Watch starts at $349. Less than any of those previous products, including the iPod back in 2001. It's a fashionable watch. A portable music player. It can make calls & send text messages from your wrist even if your phone is in your pants in the dirty laundry upstairs. It can give you directions, pay for stuff, open doors, control your TV, check you in at hotels and airports, start you car, measure your heart rate, track your exercise, and thats just before the App ecosystem really takes off. (Have some foresight here.)

But to the haters, it's too expensive, it needs an iPhone, it just another smart watch, it's ugly, the battery doesn't last long enough, it's just a fashion accessory, only the apple faithful will buy it, etcetera.

Well, here we go again.

Preach!

Seriously, I don't mind the questioning of Apple in some of these threads. But they certainly do sound very similar to past criticisms of products that have gone on to being revolutionary. I think we are watching something big here. Not quite as big as the iPhone. But possibly bigger than the iPod (very successful, but now defunct) or the iPad (successful but future still not fully clear). On a global scale Apple's current stock price clearly has not priced in the fact that Apple may have launched something more financially successful than the iPad. Frankly, I don't know what Wall Street is expecting. The last quarter's iPhone sales were unprecedented. I think this quarter is going to beat last year same time, by a huge margin. Is Wall Street going to be shocked if that happens? And don't they realize that the Apple Watch has better margins than the iPhone? I don't get what is going on? It seems to me that we are watching (ha ha) a financial revolution and the stock price is staying static.

 

[5105973]

By this time next year, you will see as many band options for the Apple Watch as there are iPhone cases. It'll be everything from cheap $5 bands to some challenging the price of the Apple Watch Edition.

Honestly, I want to see a totally transparent band that makes it look like the watch is glues to your wrist. Better transparent bands with light up LEDs inside used as swag or a notification.

----------



.

No, no no, no transparent bands. Haven't you seen all the hairy arm photos on this site? Think of all the squashed arm hair under a transparent band! I'm old enough to remember clear bands in the 80's. The horror!

 

[AKRowdy]

This is slightly O/T, but I find it interesting how Apple condemns Indiana for the law it passed, while Italy is a dangerous, hostile place for people who are openly gay. I have friends who moved from Italy to the US, and the situation in some parts of Italy is worse than in the South of the US. There is real violence toward gay people in Italy. Same sex marriage is legal in Indiana. Italy does not even recognize civil unions between gay couples. Indiana gets condemned and Milan gets a fashion show. I want to be very clear that I did not support the Indian bill, but people tend to have universal beliefs about Europe that aren't true. Italy is an outlier in a number of ways including LGBT rights.

Ya but there's no (very loud) public outcry over the happenings in Indiana. Why would Apple (or any other company) give a **** about something unless it gives them positive press.

 

[MacVidCards]

The route Apple has taken in marketing this watch is actually turning me off from wanting to buy one. I think they've gone too far with the whole fashion/celebrity angle. I will feel like a total douche/knob/tool/(insert word of choice) buying one of these. The seemingly "exclusivity" of it, with all the ridiculous fashion events and photos over the last month.... when you get down to it, it's an overpriced piece of electronics...... stop pretending it's so much more Apple. Then there is the "You can only order online" weirdness, which one can only hope is being driven by poor production output and not some intentional strategy. Just a completely strange launch of a new product.

Bingo.

Wake up people, you are working yourselves into a lather over 30 cents worth of plastic.

 

[zhenlek]

legs

Mamasita...nice legs...

 

[CFreymarc]

No, no no, no transparent bands. Haven't you seen all the hairy arm photos on this site? Think of all the squashed arm hair under a transparent band! I'm old enough to remember clear bands in the 80's. The horror!

Someone, somewhere will Swatch the hell out of this. How about metallic slap wrap bands while we are at it! #

 

[iBug2]

I don't hate Apple.

I wanted an Apple II, but I ended up getting an Atari 800 instead

My only gripe, or thing that makes me sad is that Apple has left a groups of people and I will include myself in the group, out in the cold deliberately.

And they have done this, simply because they know if they did not, the products they WANTED to sell would not of sold so well.

What am I talking about?
A reasonably priced Desktop Mac Computer.

One that, just like a PC, you can upgrade with new graphics cards, more memory, SSD's upgrade just like a PC, till you decide you wish to get a new one and start again.

Instead they only wanted to offer, and still do a Laptop with a large screen on a stand. A mac mini that's restricted and an over priced Mac Pro. Priced at such a point where it would never threaten their MacPro or ever stand a chance of becoming popular.

This is not a mistake, it's deliberate. And that makes me sad.

They have sold that Desktop Mac Computer for many years. And they stopped it just recently.

And the iMac is not a laptop with a large screen. It uses desktop CPU's and memory. The only mobile component in it is the GPU, and that's the top of the line mobile GPU which is an overkill for most laptops.

 

[jkruehne]

Time for Swatch® to bring out the lawsuits. These watchbands are nothing but rehashes from the offerings of 1985.

well, thats exactly what i like at the watches - they looks to me as a "reworked-digital-swatch(R)-revival" (not in a negative way ;-)
And didnt Sir J. Ive mentioned it, that it would be apples first product that looks more like the past than the future (something like that ; )

 

[62tele]

You know this forum deals with more than just Macs... right? This particular article is about the Apple Watch... for instance.

Honestly... I feel like this website should have changed its name a while ago. But oh well.

I don't use a Mac either... but I use plenty of other Apple products. That's why I come here. And I'm probably not alone in that regard.

Yes, I am well aware that this forum is about Apple products. My reference to "Macs" was a generic term but what I wrote applies to Apple's entire product line relative to the poster's participation here. I've been a member here for quite some time and I would be hard pressed to find a single positive thing that the poster in question has written concerning Apple or it's products. That strikes me as strange since this is about Apple products. I don't use Android or Microsoft products and have never participated in an Android or Microsoft forum. Why would I?
And before you offer something akin to the forum is not merely to laud Apple and exclude discussions about shortcomings of a product, I am well aware of that. Apple sometimes does things that baffle, frustrate and irritate me and they have had their share of missteps etc. Certainly those issues should be discussed but they should be discussed by people who use those products. It's not a place for silly, childish "nanny, nanny boo boo" BS and trolls.

 

[jagolden]

Read

http://www.wired.com/2015//4-reasons-to-expect-a-slow-start-from-the-apple-watch/

"Page Not Found"

Would love to read the article. However, it doesn't change the fact that it is their opinion.
The company manufacturing/releasing a product determines what is beta, not someone else.
That being said, sure, there will be rough spots.
Plenty of other Wired articles, none particularly off-putting.

Like the Newton/Message Pad, it could die out rather quickly, but will be the forerunner to greater things to come from many companies.