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Many Apple Watch Bands and Bundles Currently Listed as 'Sold Out'

Benjamin Frost said:
If this means they are phasing out the Apple Watch, then, sadly I think it's for the best.

Like Apple Pay, it is clear that it hasn't been the success that Apple would have hoped and expected it to be.
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Oddly, for the first time ever, I'm going to disagree with you Benjamin Frost, regarding Apple Pay.

I think Apple knew it would be hard. Going up against the Big Boys in the financial world is as hard as it gets and there's no way Apple couldn't know that.

I think Apple Pay is a slowly growing success story. It's expanding bit by bit, rather than declining. Even the smallest mom and pop stores are starting to install it where I live, and I don't live in a hipster town either.

I suspect in 2 or three years it will be as odd to find a place in the US that doesn't take Apple Pay as it is now to find a place that only takes cash.
 
igorsky said:
You know what else is important? Lots of disposable income. Not trying to say everyone in PR is poor, but there is a lot less free cash floating around to buy luxury goods than in, say, NY. Let me make it simple for you: economics.

Also your discount example is stupid. Apple has lowered prices on iPhones before the new model comes out and they most certainly sell like hotcakes.....
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Be careful or you might sound really stupid on the internet. You have no idea about the spending culture here (I'm not even from here). Let me put it into simple facts so you can understand:
Puerto Rico is the place with the most cars per square mile in the world: 146 vehicles per street mile and 4,300 vehicles per square mile.
STORES:
Plaza Las Americas mall in San Juan is the most profitable mall per square foot in the world
Busiest Toys "R" Us in the world is in Puerto Rico.
The highest grossing Sears store in the World is in Puerto Rico.
The Kmart with the highest sales in the US is in San Juan.
(closed a a year ago but) The Radio Shack store in Plaza Las Americas mall was the busiest and highest grossing Radio Shack in the world.
The largest JC Penney store in the world (a full 4 stories) is located at Plaza Las Americas mall.
PR has more Walgreens per sq mile than any other place in the US.
There are a lot of high end stores and a high end store mall as well.

In short, people here spend a lot to try to look like they have more money than they do. Restaurants are always full and expensive. Reminds me of the middle east in that sense, but I bet that might be hard for you to understand.

BTW, Brooklyn has an average $44K income so IDK why you think the people around you have 'lots disposable income'.

Ohhh I did not know they announced the new apple watch and they did it since a year ago when the big discounts started to happen on the watch? Please send me the link for the new watch, I want to see the specs.

The watch is selling, but not like hotcakes, more like bear-claws.
Hope I expanded your knowledge!
 
lordofthereef said:
If and when a new watch comes I sure hope that this doesn't mean older bands won't be usable. As chunky as the watch itself is I imagine Apple could make it quite a bit thinner before having to abandon the old watch band interface (for lack of better words). Hopefully they are actually treating this as an interface and we see it going on for many years; I actually think that could/would promote sales going forward. It has to hurt collecting dozens of bands only to be rendered obsolete within two years.
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I agree. After collecting my favourite bands and spending more in bands than I would on 3 or 4 Apple Watches, I would hold out as long as possible before buying a new Watch if the new models didn't work with my bands. On the other hand, if the Apple Watch 2 works with my band collection, I'll upgrade on day 1.

That said, it looks like Apple built a band slot that can go on for many generations before needing to be changed.
 
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i can't comprehend why anyone buys these. first thing i would do if i got an apple watch would buy a cheap knockoff band which would probably look a whole lot cooler. these things are all ugly and priced 50 times higher than they should be
 
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lordofthereef said:
If and when a new watch comes I sure hope that this doesn't mean older bands won't be usable. As chunky as the watch itself is I imagine Apple could make it quite a bit thinner before having to abandon the old watch band interface (for lack of better words). Hopefully they are actually treating this as an interface and we see it going on for many years; I actually think that could/would promote sales going forward. It has to hurt collecting dozens of bands only to be rendered obsolete within two years.
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If that were true, Apple would never discontinue these bands. At a minimum they would keep them available on the internet indefinitely.
 
All I know is... That I think the watch is kind of really starting to take off. I'm really really seeing a lot of them in the wild all of a sudden. Having one myself I ask people what they think that recently got one -- typical response -- "I didn't think I liked it at first but now I really love it "..

I'm convinced as it gets hardware updates this product will become a huge must have.
 
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Aston441 said:
THAT is how I feel about Apple these days.

The watch bands, hiring fashionistas for ridiculous amounts of money, the Beats fiasco, the Social Justice insanity, the endless fancy parties for the ultra wealthy, the top executives getting disgustingly fat.

It's debauchery of a whole new level that makes the Romans look like innocent kindergarteners compared to the snake pit we're witnessing now

CREEPY CREEPY CREEPY
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Romans!!!
Oh no...
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The Game 161 said:
was going to get the classic buckle for my SS but realised nah might as well get a £10 one from amazon...better than spending 130 on an apple one
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Garbage in, garbage out.
 
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Disclaimer... I have an Apple Watch and love it... have some Apple bands and some knockoffs. For those of you so emotionally against the AW, and calling me "stupid", why do you care??? If you think the AW is stupid, then why are you even in this thread???

Apple isn't discontinuing the watch... why would they announce what was widely acknowledged as a wonderful upgrade to the OS and then discontinue it. So that isn't happening... also most successful smartwatch in the category.

Apple isn't changing the lug system for the bands. If you have looked at it, they could make the watch dramatically thinner without having to change the lug system at all. They may eventually change it, but I'd guess it would be 3 or 4 versions of hardware before they do. Think of how long they stuck with the old charging cable, and the investment people made in cables was nothing compared to watch bands. Having all these bands in the marketplace creates demand for a new watch version when it comes out.... and provides consumers some reason to "buy in" to the AW more.

The most logical reason (to me) for the drop in inventory of bands is that the media response from the WWDC WatchOS 3 presentation was so positive, that they got a bump in AW and band sales because those sitting on the fence can now see that there is no fear in buying one and having it be dead end. I think there had started to be a lot of fence sitters that now jumped in. That's just my speculation.
 
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Mac 128 said:
If that were true, Apple would never discontinue these bands. At a minimum they would keep them available on the internet indefinitely.
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I wouldn't say "never", but not for a very long time.

I can see certain band colors and styles going out of production. This happens with other similar products.

They've made their standard. The standard remains. But new bands replace older ones.
 
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mattopotamus said:
What's that you say? I'm a jerk
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Same as my own Watch.
I've got a few other bands but the white and stainless steel does look super cool.
 
Stiss said:
Same as my own Watch.
I've got a few other bands but the white and stainless steel does look super cool.
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I have a pretty large band collection, but I usually go back to the sport bands. They are comfortable, versatile, and look great.
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magicschoolbus said:
I'm not an apple hater. I just think the watch and all its bands of glory are really, really, really stupid.
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Are you a watch wearer? As someone who has worn a watch for as long as I can remember, it is just as much a fashion statement. The bands are priceless
 
lordofthereef said:
I wouldn't say "never", but not for a very long time.

I can see certain band colors and styles going out of production. This happens with other similar products.

They've made their standard. The standard remains. But new bands replace older ones.
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Yes, but Apple has sold not that many watches relative to the potential user base. If the 2nd gen bands are going to have the exact same connector, and the market potentially opens up to a whole new group of customers, it doesn't really make sense not to have a huge collection of bands available for them, even if online only. It's almost like selling the iPhone because of the huge number of apps available over the Android platform.
 
Mac 128 said:
Yes, but Apple has sold not that many watches relative to the potential user base. If the 2nd gen bands are going to have the exact same connector, and the market potentially opens up to a whole new group of customers, it doesn't really make sense not to have a huge collection of bands available for them, even if online only. It's almost like selling the iPhone because of the huge number of apps available over the Android platform.
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I guess I just don't agree. It's not feasible to forever stock all 28843728297 bands you've ever made. Apple is also marketing this thing as a watch, not just a tech gadget. Not even axtual watch companies sell their bands forever and ever. It makes complete sense to me to discontinue some bands in favor of others.
 
igorsky said:
Take all the money you have and bet on this not happening.
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I really wouldn't be so sure. If Apple decides to introduce "smart bands" and redesigns the way they connect to the watch, it could result in an incompatible lug connector.

But even if Apple changes the lug connector for this reason, or even if it's because they've changed the shape or size of the connection point, a simple lug connector kit will solve the problem for any band that has removable lugs. This will of course rule out Sport bands, Nylon bands, and the link bands, but the Sport & Nylon bands are the most common and least expensive anyway -- this would be the equivalent of buying new cases for a new iPhone. Anybody who has a link band will likely be upset, but then that only increases the resale value of the original watch.
 
Rychiar said:
i can't comprehend why anyone buys these. first thing i would do if i got an apple watch would buy a cheap knockoff band which would probably look a whole lot cooler. these things are all ugly and priced 50 times higher than they should be
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You're the kind of person who buys a fake Louis Vuitton wallet. You can't see the difference or the value in the difference and that's fine. You're not the target market.
 
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